PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


kMjU^fLJ  ^IL  n 


i'M 


BV  1475  .H4190 
Haygood,  Atticus  G.  1839 
1896. 
^^'^■^'- Our  children 


IngnyffBMll&Sms23B(iTda.^Styr 


Our  Children 


BY 

ATTICUS  G.  HAYGOOD,  D.D,, 

President  of  Emorv  College. 


Feed    my    lambs."— John    xxi,    IB. 


SKVENTII    TIIOL'.SAND. 


NEW    YORK : 

NELSON     &     PHILLIPS, 

805  Broadway,  New  York, 

JOHN    W.    BURKE    &    CO., 

MACON,    GA. 

1878. 


Entered  acconliug:  to  Act  of  Coiiirress,  in  the  jiar  1^76,  by 

ATTICUS    G.     HAYGOOD, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  "Washing'ton. 


DEDICATION. 


Co  mg  Stotber,  aub  llje  mcmorg  of  mg  J^at^^r, 

Who  did  all   they  could   to  obey  that   Scripture  which   saith,    "And   these 

words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  In  thine  heart:  and 

thou   shalt   teach   them   diligently   unto   thy  children,    and 

shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house, 

and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when 

thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest 

up,"  this  book  is  gratefully 

dedicated   by 

THE   AUTHOR. 
Oxford,  Ga.,  Jan.  i,  1876 


■■.  '»  V  ■•  '•  ■" 

INTRODUCTION. 


AN  introduction  to  a  book  is  as  necessary  as  to  a 
party.  By  it  the  reader  learns  in  advance  what 
will  be  his  fare.  But  introductions,  we  are  sorry  to  be- 
lieve, are  seldom  read,  and  readers,  not  being  properly 
introduced,  set  in  to  read,  and,  failing  to  be  entranced 
at  the  outset,  lay  the  book  by  and  never  read  it  at  all. 
Therefore,  no  matter  how  rich  the  intellectual  fare  may 
be,  the  reader,  tired  too  soon,  never  tastes  it. 

I  have  consented  to  write  this  introduction  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  author.  His  name  itself  is  enough,  con- 
sidering his  long,  late,  and  successful  connection  with 
our  Sunday-school  literature.  From  this  relation  to  the 
Church  and  to  the  children  of  the  country,  no  doubt, 
came  the  inspiration  of  the  book  I  hereby  introduce  to 
the  reading  public.  This  needed  book,  on  account  of 
its  intrinsic  merit  and  the  importance  of  its  subject-mat- 
ter, I  recommend  every  one  interested  in  the  future 
generations  of  our  noble  race  to  buy,  read,  study,  prac- 
tice, and  circulate. 

There  are  many  subjects  on  which  good  books  might 
be  written.  But  the  subject  on  which  this  book  treats 
ranks  them  all  in  point  of  vital  interest  and  grand  re- 
sults. An  introduction  to  a  book  does  well  to  sketch  its 
contents,  but,  for  good  reasons,  I  prefer  to  lay  down  a 
grand  postulate  of  my  own,  comprising  in  it  the  sub- 
stance, if  not  the  sum,  of  the  book  itself.  It  is  a  work 
setting  forth   the   philosophy  of  good,  religious  family 


6  Introduction. 

government  and  education  —  what  we  might  call  the 
Christian  theory  of  childhood.  That  in  all  this  there  is 
room  for  sound  philosophy,  and  great  need  of  it,  all  wise 
administrators  in  this  little  realm  will  readily  allow ; 
therefore,  this  forth-coming  book  should  be  hailed  as  a 
welcome  contribution  to  the  literature  now  most  need- 
ed. For  unless  our  children  can  be  rightly  reared  for 
both  earth  and  heaven,  domestic  life,  in  so  far  as  chil- 
dren are  involved,  is  only  an  altar  on  which  to  offer  up 
souls  in  sacrifice  to  the  lusts  of  pleasure  and  fashion. 
Among  the  many  assignable  causes  of  the  desolations  of 
sin,  there  is  not  another — not  even  the  Leviathan  of  in- 
temperance— that  has  opened  so  wide  an  outlet  of  souls 
from  God  and  heaven  as  bad,  irreligious  family  govern- 
ment and  its  consequences.  Minds  and  hearts  spoiled 
in  the  nursery  can  rarely  be  mended  in  the  sanctuary. 
Wherefore,  the  rule  of  prevention,  as  given  us  by  Solo- 
mon— writing  as  the  amanuensis  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
not  merely  as  a  practical  philosopher — is  :  "  Train  up  a 
child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he 
will  not  depart  from  it." 

I  believe  this  declaration  to  be  absolute  in  its  sense, 
and  feel  no  little  shocked  when  I  hear  slack-twisted 
parents,  whose  children  are  departing  from  the  right 
way,  alleging  that  this  very  special  text  was  never  in- 
tended to  guarantee  any  thing  more  than  a  degree  of 
general  good  luck.  Nay,  verily,  brethren,  it  intends  in- 
surance against  all  the  evils  that  occur  in  consequence 
of  failure  in  right  training.  If  it  does  not,  it  furnishes 
no  insurance  at  all,  nor  any  ground  of  faith  on  which 
parents  can  rest  their  confidence  in  right  training.  Un- 
less there  is  in  it  divine  security — unless  right  training 
so  changes  the  chances  of  a  child's  conversion  from  pos- 
sibility to  certainty  as  to  amount  to  assurance,  I  cannot 
see  the  divine  reason  for  its  incorporation  into  the  law 


Introduction.  7 

of  practical  godliness  in  the  machinery  of  revealed  re- 
ligion. But  in  all  these  platforms  for  human  action 
there  is  always  a  marked  specialty.  Here  it  is  con- 
tained in  the  words  ''  in  the  way  in  which  he  should  go." 
There  are  many  parents  who  train  their  children  rather  in 
the  way  they  choose  for  them  than  in  the  way  they  should 
go.  These  errors  in  training  lead  to  habitual  divergencies 
from  the  laws  and  principles  of  spiritual  piety;  and  when 
their  personal  subordination  to  the  requirements  of  self- 
denial  should  lead  them  to  walk  after  the  Spirit,  and  not 
after  the  flesh,  they  are  found  to  be  obstinately  insubor- 
dinate. They  are,  however,  walking  in  the  way  wherein 
they  were  trained  to  go,  and  the  reason  why  they  cannot 
be  made  to  walk  in  the  narrow  path  of  life  is  because  they 
were  inadvertently  trained  to  walk  in  the  broader  way 
of  the  world.  The  mother  trained  her  daughter  to  look 
upon  her  fortunes  here  as  depending  more  on  enslave- 
ment to  popular  fashion  in  dress,  than  upon  noble  self- 
denial  of  superfluities  for  the  more  liberal  endowment 
of  Christ's  treasury  for  his  poor.  The  father  so  trained 
his  son  as  to  make  him  feel  that  eating  his  bread  by  the 
sweat  of  his  face  was  to  lower  his  position  in  life,  from 
the  grade  of  a  gentleman  to  that  of  a  peasant,  and  the 
outworking  of  these  unhallowed  lusts  so  demoralized 
the  inward  springs  of  Christian  heroism  that  ere  he  was 
aware  of  it  his  son  was  a  fashionable  loafer,  living  upon 
the  prestige  of  his  family  name,  without  any  self-earned 
reputation,  either  of  business  merit  or  moral  goodness. 
And  in  all  of  these  mournful  issues  it  will  be  found  on 
examination  that  the  outlet  from  God  and  moral  in- 
surance for  our  children  was  in  the  adoption  of  rules  of 
living  originated  in  worldly  policies  irrespective  of  God's 
word,  as  the  only  law  of  living  from  which  parents  can 
learn  how  to  train  their  children  in  the  way  they  should 
go.     And  any  other  training  is  a  forfeiture  of  the  charter. 


8  Introduction. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  only  order  ever  issued  from 
the  fountain  of  all  moral  authority,  on  the  subject  of  ed- 
ucation, was  in  these  words  : — 

"And  these  words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day, 
shall  be  in  thine  heart :  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  dili- 
gently unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when 
thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by 
the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou 
risest  up." 

How  strikingly  simple,  and  yet  how  specially  minute, 
this  divine  order  is !  These  four  conditions  in  domes- 
tic life  leave  no  unfilled  space.  And  I  doubtless  say 
no  more  than  is  true  when  I  say,  Solomon's  training  up 
of  children  in  the  way  they  should  go,  was  in  this  way. 

The  Spirit  of  inspiration  has  but  one  way  in  carrying 
cut  any  one  of  the  specified  duties  of  revealed  religion. 
The  two  conditions  in  domestic  life,  called  lying  down 
and  rising  up,  cannot  mean  any  thing  else  than  family 
worship.  And  no  one  pretending  to  religion  would  ever 
presume  to  say  he  had  trained  his  children  in  the  way  in 
which  they  should  go,  if  he  had  trained  them,  by  exam- 
ple, to  live  and  raise  up  children  without  morning  and 
evening  prayer.  This  original  order  for  family  religion 
and  family  instruction  is  more  especially  specified  by 
the  prophet  Isaiah,  both  as  to  age  and  manner,  when  he 
asks:  *'Whom  shall  he  teach  knowledge.?  and  whom 
shall  he  make  to  understand  doctrine  ?  them  that  are 
weaned  from  the  milk,  and  drawn  from  the  breast." 

This  doubtless  means  that  this  work  is  to  be  begun 
from  infancy.  Hence  he  says,  '*  For  precept  must  be 
upon  precept,  precept  upon  precept;  line  upon  line, 
line  upon  line ;  here  a  little  and  there  a  little."  This  is 
exactly  what  was  commanded  by  Moses  in  another 
form. 

This  instruction  must  be  repeated  until  these  pupils 


Introduction.  9 

understand  doctrine.  This  is  exactly  what  Lois  and 
Eunice  did  to  Timothy.  They  drilled  him  in  this 
way,  until  from  childhood  he  knew  the  Holy  Script- 
ures, which  were  able  to  "  make  him  wise  unto  salva- 
tion, through  faith  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Thus  they  made  Timothy  understand  doctrine.  And 
if  it  was  possible  with  him,  it  is  possible  with  all  chil- 
dren under  like  circumstances.  The  business  of  all 
Christian  parents  is  in  this  way  to  make  ready  a  people 
prepared  for  the  Lord.  Timothy  was  so  made  ready 
and  prepared  for  the  Lord,  and  that,  too,  by  his  grand- 
mother and  mother,  while  it  is  likely  that  his  father  was 
even  opposed  to  it,  as  he  was  a  Greek.  Let  Christian 
mothers,  who  unfortunately  may  have  irreligious  hus- 
bands, take  encouragement.  The  charm  of  a  pious 
mother  is  often  too  mighty  for  the  evil  influence  of  an 
ungodly  father's  example. 

But  we  are  doing  what  we  can  to  bring  about  a  better 
state  of  things.  I  have  said  that  children  spoiled  in 
the  nursery  can  seldom  be  mended  in  the  sanctuary. 
And  it  is  equally  true  of  them,  that  if  they  are  well- 
molded  in  the  nursery,  and  well-finished  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  it  is  hard  to  spoil  them  afterward.  But  it  can 
be  done  by  "evil  communications."  Keep  children 
under  the  same  influences  that  gave  them  their  first  re- 
ligious impulses.  If  they  are  sent  off  to  school  or  col- 
lege for  education,  send  them  where  their  faith  will  be 
best  nurtured. 

The  author  of  the  book  I  hereby  introduce,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Haygood,  although  young,  has  had  more  than  five 
years  of  official  relation  to  the  wants  and  interests  of  chil- 
dren, having  been,  at  two  successive  General  Confer- 
ences of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  elected 
Sunday-school  Secretary  and  editor  of  Sunday-school 
books  and  periodicals. 


10  Introduction. 

From  a  well-stored  mind  and  an  anxious  heart  he  of- 
fers, in  this  work,  his  observations  and  experience  upon 
the  best  interests  of  our  children  for  time  and  eternity, 
upon  the  obligations  and  duties  of  parents,  and  upon  the 
opportunities  and  work  of  Sunday-school  teachers.  The 
principles — drawn  as  they  are  from  the  word  of  God — 
that  are  set  forth  in  this  volume  are  like  the  mariner's 
chart  and  compass — all  important  to  safe  navigation 
along  the  perilous  coast  of  life. 

We  copy  from  the  Bible — "  be  not  faithless,  but  be- 
lieving; "  and  sing,  as  we  used  to  do,  of  Bible  sailors: — 

*'  The  Bible  is  my  chart  and  compass  too, 
Whose  needle  points  forever  true." 

L.  Pierce. 
Sunshine,  January  19,  1876. 


OOni^TENTS, 


PART  I.— THE  FAMILY. 

OlUPTEB  PaQR 

I.  Childhood 13 

II.  Childhood  and  Religion 25 

III.  Prevention  of  Sin  an  Invaluable  Mercy 34 

IV.  The  Enlightening  and  Quickening  Spirit 45 

V.  On  Mere  Ability  to  Talk  Religion 56 

VI.  "  Feed  My  Lambs  " 66 

VII.  The  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage 78 

VIII.  The  Family — The  Basis  of  Church  and  State.  . .     92 

IX.  The  Family — A  School  of  Religion 99 

,        X.  The  Duty  of  Teaching  God's  Word  to  our  Chil- 
dren   no 

XI.  Training  as  Well  as  Teaching 123 

XII.  What  Human  Parenthood  Should  Signify 137 

XIII.  Home  Influences 151 

XIV.  The  Christian  Home 162 

XV.  The  Family  Altar 175 

XVL  Eli  AND  His  Sons 189 

KVII.  IcHABOD 203 


PART  II.— THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

I.  The  Magnitude  of  the  Movement 213 

II.  The  Sunday-school  Auxiliary 222 

III.  The  Chief  Function  of  the  Sunday-school 231 


12  Contents. 

Chapter  Pioi 

IV.  Who  Should  be  in  the  Sunday-school 242 

V.  Hunting  Plans 251 

VI.  The  Power  of  the  Right  Spirit 265 

VII.  A  Light  IN  a  Dark  Place 277 

VIII.  Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Grace 293 

IX.  Building  Dikes 308 

X.  Hikts  on  Sunday-school  Work. 330 


OUR  OHILDREIf! 


PAET    I. 


CHAPTER   I. 

CHILDHOOD. 

THE  significance  of  the  birth  and  childhood  of 
a  human  being  the  world  has  been  slow  to 
learn.  Lycurgus,  iron-hearted  lawgiver  of  Lacedae- 
mon,  understood  but  one  thing  of  a  male  infant — it 
might  make  a  soldier.  The  old  Spartan  theory 
made  the  State  every  thing,  the  individual  nothing. 
The  individual  citizen  was  nothing,  except  as  his 
welfare  or  ruin  affected  the  general  interests.  Hence 
that  heartless  code  which  required  that  delicate 
or  deformed  children  should  be  ''exposed" — aban- 
doned to  wild  beasts,  or  in  some  other  fashion  be 
put  out  of  the  Avay.  "  The  great  aim  of  the  govern- 
ment," says  Bojesen,  "was  to  form,  by  means  of 
education,  a  race  of  citizens  whose  bodily  strength 
and  powers  of  endurance,  united  to  moral  vigor  and 
public  spirit,  would  be  a  security  for  their  perform- 
ing efficiently  the  duties  which  it  required.     From 


14  Our  Children. 

their  infancy  children,  especially  boys,  were  looked 
upon  as  the  property  of  the  State.  As  soon  as  they 
were  born  they  were  examined  by  the  elders  of  their 
father's  phyle^  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  that 
they  had  no  bodily  infirmity  or  deformity,  which 
might  render  it  necessary  to  expose  them.  They 
were  then  left  with  their  parents  till  their  seventh 
year,  when  the  State  undertook  their  education,  in 
order  to  accustom  them  to  strict  military  discipline, 
and  qualify  them  for  the  army." 

There  was  a  savage  sort  of  consistency  in  all  this ; 
for  the  man  was  lost  in  the  citizen — the  family 
merged  in  the  State.  Hence,  if  a  boy-baby  could 
not  make  a  soldier  there  was  no  use  of  him,  and  the 
best  interests  of  the  State  required  that  he  be  put 
out  of  the  way.  Sparta  was,  perhaps,  among  the 
first  of  the  ancient  nations  that  undertook  a  sys- 
tem of  compulsory  education.  She  made  that  edu- 
cation as  godless  as  might  be,  under  a  constitution 
that  knew  nothing  but  the  State  and  the  worth  of 
the  citizen  as  a  producer  or  a  fighter. 

How  inconceivable  to  us  a  code  of  laws  and  a 
state  of  society  which  counted  it  a  virtue  to  expose 
to  death  weak  or  deformed  children  !  What  would 
we  say  if  some  member  of  our  national  Congress 
should  propose  to  enact  a  code,  like  that  of  Lycui 
gus,  for  the  doing  away  with  deformed  and  sickly 
children,  as  the  best  means  of  improving  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country? 


Childhood,  1 5 

It  is  the  word  of  God  that  proclaims  the  dignity 
of  the  individual  man ;  that  tells  us  that  the  man  is 
more  than  the  citizen ;  that  teaches  us  that  the 
State  is  nothing  except  as  it  fosters  and  develops 
the  happiness  and  character  of  the  individual  man. 
And  it  is  from  the  word  of  God  that  we  learn  the 
true  significance  of  childhood. 

How  far  removed  from  the  code  of  Sparta  is  the 
law  given  to  Israel :  ''  And  these  words,  which  I 
command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thine  heart : 
and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  chil- 
dren, and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in 
thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up  ! " 
If  we  would  see  the  difference,  contrast  the  Spartan 
elders  inspecting  a  new-born  babe  to  see  if  it  would 
make  a  citizen  and  a  scene  recorded  by  the  evan- 
gelists :  "  And  they  brought  young  children  to  him, 
that  he  should  touch  them ;  and  his  disciples  re- 
buked those  that  brought  them.  But  when  Jesus 
saw  it,  he  was  much  displeased,  and  said  unto  them, 
Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  for- 
bid them  not ;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Verily  I  say  unto  you.  Whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not 
enter  therein.  And  he  took  them  up  in  his  arms, 
put  his  hands  upon  them,  and  blessed  them." 

In  vain  will  we  search  antiquity  for  any  such 
views  of  childhood  as  underlie  the  injunctions  of 


i6  Our  Children. 

St.  Paul:  "Children,  obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord: 
for  this  is  right.  .  .  .  And,  ye  fathers,  provoke  not 
your  children  to  wrath :  but  bring  them  up  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord." 

Indeed,  the  Abrahamic  covenant,  with  its  solemn 
rite  of  circumcision,  recognized  the  dedicated  child 
in  his  individual  relations  to  God.  And  the  Script- 
ures can  show  us  the  true  dignity  and  worth  of 
individual  man,  they  can  declare  to  us  the  true  sig- 
nificance of  childhood,  because  they  reveal  to  us 
the  fatherhood  of  God.  Jesus  Christ  has  "  shown 
us  the  Father;"  and  he  alone  teaches  us  the  true 
worth  of  a  human  being — the  true  mystery  and 
meaning  of  human  birth  and  childhood. 

We  raise  here  this  fundamental  question:  Why 
is  this  world  peopled  as  it  is?  Why  are  men  born, 
and  not  directly  created  ?  We  cannot  suppose  that 
the  Creator  was  shut  up  to  this  one  method  of 
peopling  the  earth.  Adam  and  Eve  were  not  born ; 
"out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground"  God  could  have 
created  millions  as  easily  as  two.  Angels  are  not 
born  ;  fatherhood,  motherhood,  childhood,  brother- 
hood are  unknown  terms  and  relations  among  them. 
There  is  no  kinship  among  the  angels.  Surely  God 
might,  had  he  so  chosen,  have  peopled  our  world 
with  millions  by  a  direct  exertion  of  creative  power. 
So  he  peopled  heaven — and,  as  it  seems,  before  the 
creation  of  man — with  myriads  of  intelligent  beings. 
Why  are  not  men  so  created — millions  of  adult  in- 


Childhood.  \J 

dividuals,  isolated  and  unrelated?  But  God  created 
one  pair — the  man  and  the  woman,  the  father  and 
the  mother  of  the  human  race.  Wherefore?  Such 
questions  may  not  be  fully  answered,  ''For  who 
hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord?" 

But  some  things  are  plain  enough  to  the  eye  of 
faith.  We  know  that  this  method  of  peopling  the 
world  by  generation  and  birth  is,  for  all  the  ends 
of  the  creation  of  our  race,  the  very  best  method 
that  could  have  been  adopted.  Elsewise,  some 
other  had  been  found  out.  We  know  also  that  the 
Divine  plans  are  adjusted  to  each  other  with  infal- 
lible precision,  and  this,  too,  not  merely  for  the  first 
day  of  creation,  with  the  then  existing  state  of 
things,  but  for  all  days  that  were  to  come  after,  and 
in  view  of  all  possible  contingencies.  Nothing  that 
transpired  after  the  creation  of  angels  or  men  took 
the  all-wise  God  by  surprise.  The  great  schemes 
of  providence  and  redemption  were  not  suddenly 
improvised  to  meet  and  countervail  an  unexpected 
success  on  the  part  of  the  great  enemy  of  God  and 
man.  The  plans  of  God  in  creation,  providence, 
and  redemption,  are  now,  and  always  have  been,  in 
perfect  harmony.  The  creation  of  the  entire  uni- 
verse, with  all  that  it  contains,  was  begun  and  fin- 
ished in  the  clear  foresight  of  all  possible  contingen- 
cies— that  of  the  fall  and  the  redemption  of  our  race 
included.     Dr.  Bledsoe  has  well  said  in  his  *'  Theod. 

icy:"  "The  plan  of  redemption  was  not  an  after^ 
2 


1 8  Our  Children. 

thought,  designed  to  remedy  an  evil  which  the  eye 
of  omniscience  had  not  foreseen ;  it  was  formed  in 
the  counsels  of  Infinite  Wisdom  long  before  the 
foundations  of  the  world.  The  atonement  was 
made  for  man,  it  is  true ;  but,  in  a  still  higher  sense, 
man  was  made  for  the  atonement.  All  things  were 
made  for  Christ." 

We  will  not  be  drawn  aside  into  metaphysical 
discussions  of  such  questions  as.  Why  did  God  cre- 
ate beings  that  he  foresaw  would  sin  ?  We  may 
well  exclaim  with  the  psalmist,  "  Such  knowledge  is 
too  wonderful  for  me ;  it  is  high,  I  cannot  attain 
unto  it."  It  does  not  in  the  least  solve  our  per- 
plexities to  doubt  or  deny  the  Bible  doctrine  of 
the  subject.  The  facts  exist — man  has  been  created 
and  he  has  sinned.  Moreover,  his  children  are  in- 
volved in  his  sin.  The  question  may,  perhaps,  never 
in  this  world  be  fully  answered,  but  one  thing  we 
know — and  it  is  the  knowledge  that  comes  through 
faith — God  created  the  world,  and  man,  and  the 
universe,  as  he  did,  because  it  was  best  to  do  so. 

The  difficulties  that  environ  this  subject  are  not 
peculiar  to  the  Bible  history  of  man  and  of  the  or- 
igin of  sin ;  they  inhere  in  the  facts  themselves. 
Sir  William  Hamilton  says  truly:  "No  difficulty 
emerges  in  theology,  which  lavi  net  previously 
emerged  in  philosophy."  We  may,  in  blind  pas-- 
sion  and  unbelief,  reject  the  Bible  doctrine,  but  the 
facts  remain — man  has  been  created,  he  has  been 


Childhood.  19 

created  capable  of  propagating  his  race,  he  has  sinned, 
^.nd  his  posterity  are  involved  in  his  fall. 

At  this  point  we  may  quote  profitably  a  para- 
graph from  Bishop  Marvin's  *'  Work  of  Christ :  " — 

"With  respect  to  our  depraved  condition,  as  it 
results  from  our  connection  with  the  first  trans- 
gressors, and  the  spiritual  impotency  for  good  there- 
from resulting,  I  have  several  things  to  say. 

**  First.  Our  Creator  has  provided  a  second  Adam, 
whose  representative  relation  to  us  places  us  on  a 
footing  as  advantageous  as  if  we  had  never  been  in- 
volved in  the  fall. 

''  Secondly.  The  gracious  influences  of  the  cross  so 
far  countervail  our  deprav  ed  propensities  as  to  make 
repentance  and  salvation  possible  to  every  man. 

"  Thirdly.  I  cannot  suppose  that  the  human  fami- 
ly would  have  been  permitted  to  multiply  under  the 
fatal  influences  of  the  fall,  but  for  the  counteracting 
agencies  of  the  redemption." 

As  it  seems  to  us,  it  is  too  plain  for  doubt,  that 
God's  plans  provide  for  the  present  and  eternal  sal- 
vation of  every  individual  of  the  race  that  he  cre- 
ated, with  the  clear  foresight  of  its  fall,  and  that  he 
created,  nevertheless,  because  he  had  provided  for 
its  redemption.  But  these  plans  involved — man  be- 
ing what  he  is — in  the  very  necessities  of  our  nature, 
human  co-operation,  as  a  condition  of  ultimate  and 
complete  success. 

The  argument  and  the  facts  of  our  history  lead 


20  Our  Children. 

inevitably  to  this  conclusion  :  human  birth  and 
childhood,  and  the  discipline  which  these  states  and 
relations  involve,  furnish,  of  all  others  the  best  pos- 
sible conditions  for  the  salvation  of  our  race.  We 
should  study  the  significance  of  birth  and  infancy 
and  childhood — as  well  as  all  other  great  themes 
and  questions  that  concern  our  race — in  the  light  of 
their  relation  to  the  eternal  salvation  of  man  :  that 
is,  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  In 
Christ  ''  all  things  consist."  There  can  be  no  theod- 
icy where  the  God-man  and  his  work  are  left  out. 

Now  fallen  angels  make  demons.  Grown-up  men, 
with  fully  developed  passions,  set  on  fire  by  sin,  and 
without  the  restraint  and  discipline  which,  by  the 
conditions  of  helplessness  and  dependence  incident 
to  infancy  and  childhood,  come  through  parental 
care  and  government,  Avould  make  moral  monsters, 
frightful  to  contemplate,  and,  so  far  as  we  may  judge, 
incapable  of  redemption. 

Consider,  for  a  moment,  the  condition  of  a  new- 
born babe.  What  seeming  contradictions  are  here! 
What  possibilities  are  wrapped  up  in  that  tiny 
frame  and  undeveloped  mind !  That  little  hand 
may  some  day  wield  the  scepter  of  an  empire  ;  it  is 
now  nerveless  and  impotent.  That  tongue  may 
some  day  move  multitudes  by  its  eloquence;  it  is 
now  voiceless.  That  mind  may  some  day  master 
great  problems — learning  much  of  God,  his  word, 
and  his  works ;  it  is  now  ignorant  of  the  simplest 


Childhood.  21 

truths.  Weak  and  pitiful  thing,  for  a  whole  year  it 
cannot  walk  alone,  or  lisp  the  name  of  its  mother. 
It  is  the  most  helpless  of  all  young  things,  and  for 
a  longer  period.  For  many  years  it  depends  for  its 
daily  support  upon  parental  care.  Few  children 
under  twelve  years  and  dependent  on  their  own  ex- 
ertions could  maintain  their  existence.  In  the  life 
of  a  mere  animal  a  few  months  may  terminate  its 
dependent  relations.  And  this  to  the  young  crea- 
ture brings  no  loss  or  danger ;  it  has  little  to  learn  ; 
instinct  supplies  the  lack  of  education.  The  lower 
down  we  go  in  the  scale  of  being,  the  less  is  this  de- 
pendence until  at  last  it  seems  to  cease  altogether. 
If  we  search  among  the  oyster  beds,  we  shall  find  no 
traceable  parental  care  or  infantile  dependence — 
only  little  points  of  life  adhering  to  the  rocks  and 
fed  by  the  waves. 

But  it  is  very  different  when  God  sets  about  mak- 
ing a.man.  It  was  very  different  at  the  beginning: 
"And  God  created  great  whales,  and  every  living 
creature  that  moveth,  which  the  waters  brought 
forth  abundantly,  after  their  kind,  and  every  winged 
fowl  after  his  kind.  .  .  .  And  God  made  the  beast 
of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and  cattle  after  their 
kind,  and  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth 
after  his  kind  :  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good." 
And  "  good  "  they  were,  '*  after  their  kind."  These 
things  he  simply  "  created."  Not  so  did  he  "  make 
man."     "  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  oui 


22  Our  Children. 

image,  after  our  likeness.  ...  So  God  created  man 
in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he 
him  ;  male  and  female  created  he  them." 

The  mere  creatures  never  had  God's  image.  Man 
had  it  and  by  sin  lost  it.  And  now,  in  the  great 
schemes  of  providence  and  redemption,  God  seeks 
to  restore  to  man  his  lost  glory.  When  a  man — 
capable  of  God,  though  fallen,  and  entering  upon  an 
immortal  existence  —  is  to  be  brought  up,  many 
years  of  utter  helplessness,  of  weakness  and  conse- 
quent dependence,  are  required. 

The  common  law  reckons  us  minors,  and  incapa- 
ble of  performing  the  full  functions  of  independent 
citizenship,  till  we  have  lived  twenty- one  years. 
Why  is  this?  Why  are  our  children  so  long  in 
reaching  maturity?  Why  are  they  so  long  depend- 
ent upon  our  care  and  toil?  Our  answer  is:  that 
human  parents,  during  this  long  period  of  helpless 
dependence,  may  have  the  best  of  all  conceivable 
opportunities  for  beginning  and  perfecting  that 
training:  in  obedience  and  faith  and  love  which  is 
so  essential  to  their  salvation  from  sin.'^ 

*  Sometime  after  this  chapter  was  written  we  found  the  following 
remarks  in  Dr.  John  Harris's  "  Patriarchy,"  which  we  beg  to  quote  a* 
confirmatory  of  our  general  argument : — 

"  Why  can  man  have  been  invested  subordinately  with  the  prerog- 
ative of  multiplying  his  own  image,  but  in  order  that  he  might  trans- 
form his  offspring  into  the  likeness  of  his  Creator?  .  .  .  Striking 
and  unique  is  that  arrangement  by  which  the  human  offspring  are  re- 
tained for  so  long  a  period  in  a  state  of  susceptibility  and  of  depend- 


Childhood,  23 

O,  when  will  we  learn  the  profound  and  awful 
iis^nificance  of  human  birth  and  childhood  !  the 
solemn  and  tremendous  responsibilities  of  human 
parenthood !  Shame  on  the  man  called  father,  or  the 
woman  called  mother,  who  can  look  in  the  face  of  a 
new-born  baby  and  not  be  awed  and  thrilled  with  a 
sense  of  responsibilities  which  take  hold  on  eter- 
nity !  Its  destiny  is  practically  in  their  hands. 
None  can  take  their  place — none  can  do  their  work. 
They  hold  a  key  that  others  may  not  touch.  None 
can  get  so  close  to  the  child.  And  whether  they 
care  or  do  not  care — try  or  do  not  try — they  leave 
their  impress  upon  its  character  and  destiny.  It 
may  be  lost  in  spite  of  their  care ;  it  may  be  saved 
in  spite  of  their  sinful  negligence  ;  but  they  do — try- 
ing or  not  trying  to  do — something  in  shaping  the 
child's  character  and  destiny  which  others  cannot 
do.     We  say  it  most  reverently,  and  >et  without 

ence  on  parental  care.  The  poet  of  ancient  skepticism  sang  of  this 
long  period  of  infantine  dependence  as  a  state  of  supposed  inferiority 
to  the  young  of  the  brute  creation.  The  Theban  fable  pictured  men 
as  starting  full  formed  from  the  dragon's  teeth  which  Cadmus  had 
sown.  Our  first  parents  actually  commenced  life  with  this  fullness  of 
power.  The  animal  speedily  attains  maturity,  and  becomes  independ- 
ent of  parental  care.  There  was,  then,  no  inherent  necessity  why 
the  young  of  the  human  parent  should  remain  so  many  years  a  babe  ; 
a  child  and  immature.  Had  the  period  of  its  dependence,  however, 
been  only  as  long  as  the  brood  remains  with  the  parent  bird,  the  en- 
dearing names  of  father  and  mother  would  have  been  empty  sounds  ; 
little  opportunity  would  have  been  afforded  to  them  for  the  formation 
of  its  character;  and  one  of  the  most  pleasing  illustrations  of  prcv»- 
dential  appointments  would  have  been  lost." 


24  Our  Children. 

h^esitation,  the  parents,  for  a  long  time,  stand  in  the 
place  of  God  to  their  child.  They  ought  to  be,  they 
are  if  they  are  faithful,  God's  true  and  only  vicars 
upon  the  earth. 

The  cross  of  Christ  alone  solves  the  hard  questions 
which  startle  and  perplex  when  we  think  upon  man's 
creation — his  sin  and  fall.  The  cross  puts  almost 
divine  dignity  upon  fatherhood  and  motherhood. 
The  cross  makes  the  infant  of  a  day  an  heir  of  eter- 
nity and  an  object  of  absorbing  interest  to  the  in- 
telligences of  both  worlds.  Would  God  that  we 
knew  what  an  opportunity  for  bringing  our  children 
to  their  Saviour  their  helpless  infancy  and  depend- 
ent childhood  give  us!  Their  helplessness  is  com- 
plete, but  it  is  not  abject,  for  they  are  redeemed  by 
the  blood  of  Christ,  and  their  dependence  creates 
our  opportunity  for  teaching  them  to  know  and  love 
him. 

How  sublime  a  thing  is  such  helplessness  of  in- 
fancy, such  dependence  of  childhood !  And  how 
sacred  is  fatherhood  and  motherhood  !  Would  God 
that  we  understood  these  things  aright !  Then,  in- 
deed, would  "  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  be  turned  to 
their  children." 

When  will  we  learn  that  to  feed  and  clothe  them 
simply,  to  give  them  education  enough  to  push  their 
way  through  the  conflicts  of  threescore  and  ten 
years — to  furnish  them  for  this  life  only — that  these 
are  the  least  of  all  our  duties  to  them  ! 


Childhood  and  Religion.  25 


CHAPTER   II. 

CHILDHOOD    AND    RELIGION. 

X  ^ /"HEN  is  a  child  personally  responsible?  How 
^  »  old  must  a  child  be  before  it  is  capable  of  re- 
ligion ?  We  cannot  answer  in  precise  terms.  The 
word  of  God  does  not  propose  or  answer  such  ques- 
tions. They  are  questions  that  should  scarcely  be 
asked  at  all,  for  they  presuppose  something  mechan- 
ical and  arbitrary  about  religion.  The  law  of  the 
land  may  require  civil  or  military  duty  between  cer- 
tain ages — as  eighteen  and  forty-five. 

There  is  nothing  unseemly  in  making  fixed  and  ar- 
bitraiy  limits  here.  But  suppose  the  Church  should 
say:  We  will  receive  to  the  communion  no  child 
under  twelve  years  of  age  ?  We  feel  that  this  would 
be  arbitrary,  and,  therefore,  out  of  harmony  with  the 
true  spirit  of  religion.  Would  it  help  the  matter  to 
say  ten  or  fourteen  years  instead  of  twelve?  We 
know  that  it  would  not.  There  can  be  no  such  ar- 
bitrary *'  metes  and  bounds  "  in  religion.  Procrus- 
tean measures  can  have  no  place  here. 

But  there  are  many  vague  notions  and  obstinate 
prejudices  on  this  subject.  How  often  do  parents 
hesitate  when  their  little  children  offer  themselves 
for  Church  membership  ?     Sometimes  they  say :  "  1 


26  Our  Children. 

am  afraid  he  is  not  old  enough — let  him  wait  till  he 
knows  what  he  is  about."  Some  say  :  "  They  ought 
not  to  be  biased — let  them  wait  till  they  can  decide 
for  themselves  in  matters  of  religion."  * 

Attending  an  Annual  Conference  in  Virginia  once, 
a  worthy  brother,  who  was  a  local  preacher,  sought 
an  interview  and  asked  our  counsel.  He  was  troub- 
led about  the  case  of  his  little  boy,  who  had  asked 
permission  to  join  the  Church. 

The  following  is  very  nearly  what  passsed  be- 
tween us : — 

"  Why  do  you  hesitate,  brother?  " 

*'  O,  he  is  not  old  enough  !  " 

*'  How  old  is  he  ?  " 

"  He  is  ten  years  old." 

^*  How  do  you  know  he  is  not  old  enough?" 

"  He  don't  know  enough  to  join  the  Church." 

*'  Don't  know  what,  brother  ?  " 

*'  Why,  he  don't  understand  things ;  the  rules  of 
the  Church  and  the  doctrines." 

"  Do  you  understand  them,  brother?" 

*  The  following  story  of  Coleridge  is  in  point.  A  friend  visiting  him 
expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  "very  unfair  to  influence  a  child's 
mind  by  inculcating  opinions  before  it  should  come  to  years  of  dis- 
cretion, so  as  to  be  able  to  choose  for  itself."  In  reply  to  this  ab- 
surd notion  Coleridge  says:  "  I  showed  him  my  garden,  and  told  him 
it  was  my  botanical  garden."  "  How  so  ?  "  said  he  ;  "it  is  covered 
with  weeds."  "O,"  I  replied,  '■'■that  is  because  it  has  not  yet  come 
to  years  of  discretion  and  choice.  The  weeds,  you  see,  have  taken 
the  liberty  to  grow,  and  I  thought  it  unfair  in  me  to  prejudice  the 
soil  toward  roses  and  strawberries." 


Childhood  and  Religion.  27 

Well,  not  as  well  as  I  ought." 

"  Does  what  you  knozv  measure  your  fitness  for 
Church  membership?  " 

Our  friend  seemed  greatly  perplexed,  but  he 
thought  not.  Then  we  asked  him  about  his  boy 
again  :  "  Let  us  see  what  your  boy  does  know. 
Does  he  know  that  he  is  a  sinner?  " 

"  O,  yes  :  " 

"  Does  he  know  that  he  needs  a  Saviour,  and  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  his  Saviour?" 

"  I  am  sure  of  it,"  answered  the  local  preacher. 

**  Then  advise  and  encourage  him  to  join  the 
Church." 

He  promised  to  do  so. 

The  age  of  the  boy,  as  it  seemed  to  us,  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  question  of  his  joining  the  Church. 
And  as  little,  perhaps,  had  his  technical  knowledge 
of  doctrine  and  discipline. 

Very  significant  here,  as  elsewhere,  is  the  silence 
of  the  Scriptures.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Bible 
that  intimates  that  a  child's  age  can,  in  any  sense, 
become  a  condition  of  acceptance  with  God  through 
Jesus  Christ.  Nor  is  there  a  word  which  would  jus- 
tify the  Church  in  saying  a  child  must  be  so  old- 
say  ten  or  twelve — before  he  can  come  to  the  com- 
munion. But,  practically,  the  Church  has  seemed 
to  make  mere  age  one  of  the  conditions  precedent 
to  admission  to  her  fellowship.  No  particular  age, 
as  ten  or  twelve,  has  been  agreed  upon,  and  yet 


28  Our  Children. 

there  is  often  doubt  and  hesitation  when  children  of 
this  age  and  under  offer  themselves  for  member- 
ship. There  is  no  settled  opinion,  no  formulated 
doctrine  on  the  subject,  but  what  is,  perhaps,  more 
injurious,  a  deep-seated  prejudice,  a  wide-spread  sen- 
timent, unfavorable  to  the  reception  of  young  chil- 
dren into  the  Church.  Once  or  twice  we  have  known 
a  pastor  to  take  the  little  ones  by  the  hand — as  if 
to  soothe  and  satisfy  them — as  they  came  forward 
with  grown-up  sinners,  and  then  leave  their  names 
off  the  register !  Cruel  wrong  is  this.  And  it  is  the 
assumption,  often  very  thoughtlessly,  of  an  awful 
responsibility. 

Of  late  years  the  Church  has  made  great  and  nota- 
ble progress  toward  a  right  sentiment  concerning 
the  religious  capabilities  of  children.  We  have 
heard  a  preacher  say  that  he  greatly  desired  to  join 
the  Church  when  he  was  eight  years  old.  He  had 
a  deep  sense  of  sin  and  of  his  need  of  a  Saviour. 
But  he  saw  that  he  was  not  w^anted — he  was  dis- 
couraged— he  was  not  reckoned  old  enough.  He 
did  not  join  the  Church  till  he  was  fifteen — till  his 
'*  feet  had  well-nigh  slipped."  We  heard  him  say 
once :  ''  I  shudder  now  when  I  remember  the  slip- 
pery places  along  which  I  walked  and  see  how  near- 
ly I  was  lost !  "  Great  was  the  grace  that  saved 
him.  Alas !  for  the  thousands  that  between  eight 
and  fifteen  do  slip  and  fall  to  rise  no  more ! 

What  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  sentiment  that  chil- 


Childhood  and  Religion,  29 

dren  should  be  so  old  before  they  join  the  Church  ? 
Is  it  not  a  lingering,  half-conscious  feeling  or  notion 
that  knowledge  and  the  doing  of  some  meritorious 
thing  are,  somehow,  a  sort  of  condition  of  justifica- 
tion ?  But  neither  children  nor  men  are  justifie(^  on 
account  of  their  knowing  and  their  doing,  but  their 
believing.  The  condition  of  entering  into  spiritual 
life  is  not  knowledge,  but  faith.  It  is  nowhere  said, 
He  that  knoweth  such  and  such  things — that  under- 
standeth  such  and  such  doctrines  and  rules  of  the 
Church,  but  ''//<:  that  believeth  hath  everlasting  life'' 
The  jailer  of  Philippi,  deeply  convicted  of  sin,  "  fell 
down  before  Paul  and  Silas,  and  brought  them  out, 
and  said,  Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? " 
What  answer  did  they  give  ?  Little  enough  did  he 
know  of  doctrines  and  rules.  There  was  not  an  arti- 
cle of  religion  he  could  repeat,  explain,  or  prove. 
Our  little  Sunday-school  children  would  have  shamed 
his  knowledge.  The  apostles  said  :  ^'  Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,  and  thy 
house." 

Some  people  talk  of  the  ''  proper  requirements 
for  Church  membership,"  as  if  they  thought  there 
could  be  nothing  after  conversion  and  joining  the 
Church  !  As  if  one  of  the  chief  functions  and  duties 
of  the  Church  were  not  those  of  a  true  "■  nursing- 
mother,"  to  feed  the  infant  disciples  with  ''  the  sincere 
milk  of  the  word,"  that  they  ''  may  grow  thereby," 
and  to  train  them  up  in  the  "  knowledge  and  love 


30  Our  Children. 

of  God  !  *'  To  the  jailer  of  Philippi  Faul  and  Silas 
did,  indeed,  speak  ''  the  word  of  the  Lord  ;  and 
to  all  that  were  in  his  house."  What  he  then 
needed  to  know — chiefly,  no  doubt,  his  need  of  a 
Saviour  and  the  fullness  of  salvation  through  Jesus 
Christ — that  they  preached.  But  their  first  word  was 
*'  Believe."  "  Justification  by  faith  "  is  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  and  of  the  apostles  ;  it  is  the  corner-stone ; 
nay,  it  is  the  very  soul  of  Protestantism.  And  yet 
we  talk  of  a  child's  ''  knowing  what  he  is  about,"  and 
"  understanding  the  doctrines  and  the  rules  !  "  By 
all  means  let  the  child  and  man  know  what  he  is 
about ;  let  him  understand  the  doctrines  and  the 
rules.  But  there  is  deadly  danger  in  introducing 
these  knowledge  tests  and  measures  when  our  chil- 
dren stand  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  Church. 
Such  tests,  if  applied  all  round,  would  rule  out  some 
of  the  saintliest  men  and  women  who  bless  and 
grace  the  Church.  He  is  not  necessarily  the  fittest 
for  Church  membership  who  knows  most  about  the 
Church — about  rules  and  doctrines.  In  these  mat- 
ters the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  who  heard  and  re- 
jected our  Lord's  message,  were  well  instructed. 

This  much  seems  clear:  a  child  is  old  enough  to 
come  under  religious  influence — old  enough  to  act 
upon  religious  principles — in  a  word,  capable  of  re- 
ligion as  soon  as  it  is  old  enough  to  know  right 
from  wrong.     How  soon  may  this  be? 

There  are  obviously  great  differences  in  the  men- 


Childhood  and  Religion.  3 1 

tal  and  spiritual  development  of  children.  But 
most  children,  as  we  judge,  know  right  from  wrong, 
and  respond  in  their  consciences  to  the  claims  of 
God's  word  far  sooner  than  many  persons  suppose. 
On  this  subject  a  passage  from  the  "  Church  Mes- 
senger" is  judicious  and  to  the  point : — 

"  Surely  we  ought  not  to  doubt  that  as  soon  as  a 
child  is  old  enough  to  be  a  willful  sinner,  it  is  old 
enough  to  be  a  voluntary  Christian.  As  soon  as  it 
is  sufficiently  old  to  choose  the  wrong,  it  is  old 
enough  to  choose  the  right.  If  a  child  of  seven 
years  knows  what  it  is  to  commit  a  sin,  it  knows 
what  it  is  to  be  sorry  for  it,  and  to  confess  its  sins 
to  Jesus.  No  conscience  is  more  tender  than  a  lit- 
tle child's.  No  heart  is  more  easily  touched.  As 
soon  as  a  child  can  love  its  mother  it  can  learn  to 
love  Jesus.  As  soon  as  it  trusts  its  mother  enough 
to  swallow  the  unknown  draught  of  medicine,  it  can 
trust  Christ.  As  soon  as  it  begins  to  obey  a  father's 
commands,  it  can  obey  its  heavenly  Father's  com- 
mandments. Now  these  three  things,  love,  trust, 
and  obedience,  are  the  very  essence  of  religion. 
The  love  of  Christ  is  the  marrow  and  pith  of  true 
piety,  Remember,  too,  that  God's  Spirit  offers  his 
supernatural  aid  in  producing  and  confirming  the 
converting  work  in  our  children's  hearts." 

We  heard  a  father,  on  one  occasion,  relate  the 
following  incident  concerning  his  child,  a  boy,  at 
the  time,  not  quite  five  years  old : — 


32  Our  Children. 

"Comlnoj  in  from  the  street,"  he  said,  "my  little 
boy  met  me  at  the  door.  He  was  very  muddy.  I 
had  noticed  that  the  gutter  in  front  of  the  house 
was  nearly  full  of  dirty  water,  that  had  been  thrown 
on  the  street  by  some  fire-engines  that  had  been 
practicing  close  by.  I  asked,  '  How  did  you  get  so 
muddy,  Johnny?'  He  hesitated,  colored  slightly, 
and  answered  slowly  and  doubtfully,  '  Mother  sent 
me  to  Mr.  Butler's  and  I  fell  in  the  ditch.'  I  doubt- 
ed whether  he  had  told  me  the  truth,  but  making  it 
a  rule  never  to  teach  my  children  to  lie  by  accusing 
them  when  they  may  be  innocent,  I  only  said,  '  You 
must  be  more  particular  next  time.'  There  the 
matter  dropped.  After  tea  that  evening,  four  or 
five  hours  having  passed  since  our  interview  at  the 
door,  I  went  into  a  room  to  say  my  prayers.  It  was 
perfectly  dark,  but  presently  I  heard  the  little  boy 
gently  open  the  door  and  say,  *  Pa-pa.'  I  called 
him,  and  he  came  and  crouched  down  by  my  chair. 
After  my  own  prayer  was  ended — no  one  having 
intimated  to  the  child  a  suspicion  of  his  truthful- 
ness— I  began  to  pray  in  a  low  voice,  '  O  good 
Lord,  bless  my  dear  little  boy.  Make  him  good, 
and  help  him  to  tell  the  truth  always.'  As  I 
said  the  words,  slowly  and  solemnly,  I  felt  the 
little  boy  quiver  by  my  side.  He  began  to  sob, 
and  in  a  moment  jumped  up  and  threw  his  arms 
about  my  neck.  'O,  pa-pa,'  he  sobbed,  '  I  zui/l  tel- 
you   the  truth   about  getting   my  clothes   muddy 


Childhood  and  Religion.  33 

I  was  playing  in  the  ditch,  and  mother  told  me 
not  to/" 

Now,  what  shall  we  say  of  this  and  of  the  thou- 
sands of  similar  cases  that  parents  have  observed? 
It  is  conscience — conscience  quickened  by  the  truth 
and  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  When  Radford  Crockett, 
who  helped  to  murder  an  old  man  near  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  about  twenty  years  ago,  after  making  good 
his  escape,  came  voluntarily  and  gave  himself  up  to 
die,  offering  no  defense,  and  only  begging,  as  he 
sobbed  out  the  words — while  strong  men  in  the 
crowded  court-room  wept  and  sobbed  with  him — 
the  judge  to  give  him  all  the  time  the  law  allowed 
that  he  might  get  ready  for  death,  we  all  talked 
about  the  power  of  conscience,  and  faithful  minis- 
ters followed  him  to  his  cell  and  preached  unto  him 
Jesus  and  the  resurrection.  And  it  was  the  same 
power  that  worked  in  the  heart  of  the  child,  less 
than  five  years  old,  who  had  told,  perhaps,  his  first 
falsehood — conscience.  The  child,  as  well  as  the 
man,  needed  a  Saviour  and  was  capable  of  religion. 
The  child's  father  did  preach  Jesus  to  his  penitent 

little  one.     And  he  was  right. 
3 


34  Our  Ciiildrp:n. 


CHAPTER   III. 

PREVENTION   OF  SIN  AN   INVALUABLE   MERCY. 

T  T  /"E  fall  into  many  mistakes  on  this  whole  sub- 
^  ^  ject  of  the  religion  of  childhood. 
In  the  first  place,  we  have  a  vague  notion  that 
there  is  no  need  of  pressing  the  matter  upon  a 
child's  attention — that  there  is  plenty  of  time — that 
a  child  has  not  much  to  do  with  religion  any  way — 
that  religion  is  a  subject  that  chiefly  concerns  grown 
people — that  a  child  is  in  no  danger  by  delay  in  em- 
bracing Christ — that  it  will  be  as  well,  if  not  better, 
for  the  little  ones  to  wait  awhile.  And  some  persons 
— surely  on  account  of  ignorance  or  inattention,  and 
not,  we  trust,  indifference — seem  to  attach  very 
little  importance  to  such  efforts  as  children  make 
to  be  religious.  Sometimes  we  have  heard  the  in- 
terest of  a  protracted  meeting  discounted  by  reflec- 
tions upon  the  number  of  children  that  knelt  for 
prayer,  or  offered  themselves  for  membership  in  the 
Church.  Surely  such  persons  have  not  read,  or 
considered,  what  our  Lord  Jesus  has  said  :  ''At  the 
same  time  came  the  disciples  unto  Jesus,  saying, 
Who  is  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ? 
And  Jesus  called  a  little  child  unto  him,  and  se*- 
him  in  the  midst  of  them,   and  said.  Verily  I  say 


Prevention  of  Sin  an  Invaluable  Mercy,         3  5 

unto  you,  Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as 
little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom 
t)f  heaven.  Whosoever  therefore  shall  humble  him- 
self as  this  little  child,  the  same  is  greatest  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  And  whoso  shall  receive  one 
such  little  child  in  my  name  receiveth  me.  But 
whoso  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones  which 
believe  in  me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill- 
stone were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were 
drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea." 

Critics  may  differ  as  much  as  they  please  about 
the  exegesis  of  these  weighty  words,  but  their  spirit  is 
unmistakable,  and  v/e  cannot  read  them  aright  with- 
out feeling  that  we  commit  a  great  sin,  and  expose 
ourselves  to  a  great  condemnation,  when  we  hinder 
a  little  child  that  would  come  to  Jesus.  But  it  is 
mournfully  true  that  sometimes  we  imitate  the  bad 
example  of  the  unbelieving  disciples  who  "  rebuked  " 
those  who  ^'  brought  young  children  to  him,  that  he 
should  touch  them."  Let  us  read  and  ponder  the 
record  that  the  evangelist  has  made  at  this  place : 
**  But  when  Jesus  saw  it,  he  was  much  displeased, 
and  said  unto  them.  Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not ;  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

How  mischievous  are  our  misty  notions  and  blind 
prejudices  !  We  ought  to  press  the  subject  of  re< 
ligion  upon  the  attention  of  our  children.  There 
is    not   plenty   of  time.'    Children   have   much    to 


36  '  Our  Children. 

do  with  religion — as  much  as  grown  people  have. 
Children  are  in  great  danger  who  delay  embracing 
Christ.  It  is  not,  by  any  means,  as  well  for  a 
child  to  wait  awhile ;  for  he  suffers,  if  not  the 
loss  of  his  soul,  nevertheless  an  incalculable  loss, 
by  waiting. 

The  child  is  now  capable  of  sin,  and  by  that  tok- 
en we  know  that  he  is  capable  of  religion  also.  He 
now  needs  Christ,  and,  therefore,  Christ  is  now  able 
and  willing  to  save  him.  For  ''  the  Son  of  man  is 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost."  Chil- 
dren are  born  with  depraved  natures ;  they  must 
have  new  hearts  to  become  children  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus.  They  must  be  pardoned  and  regener- 
ated.^ Sin  is  one  in  its  essential  character  in  grown 
people  and  in  children.  There  is  but  one  way  as 
there  is  but  one  Saviour.  To  become  "  heirs  of 
God  "  they  must  be  made  *'  children  of  God.'^  To 
become  "  children  of  God  "  they  must  be  "  created 
anew  in  Christ  Jesus" — must  be  "  transformed  by 
the  renewing  of  their  mind."  They  must  be  "  born 
again" — "born  of  the  Spirit,"  ''born,  not  of  blood, 
nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man, 
but  of  God."  And  the  sooner  the  better  for  the 
child,  for  the  good  of  men,  and  for  the  glory  of  God. 

*  //07a  God  saves  infants  concerns  us  little.  We  know  they  aie 
saved,  although  it  ha.  pleased  him  to  tell  us  little  about  the  mode  of 
their  salvation  ;  assured,  however,  that  they  are  so  saved  as  to  enter 
heaven  with  the  Christly,  and  not  with  the  Adamic.nature  — Go  or  Si  in/. 


Prevention  of  Sin  an  Invaluable  Mercy.        37 

It  is,  indeed,  a  blessed  and  glorious  work  of  grace 
when  some  great  sinner  of  "  the  giants,  of  the  sons 
of  Anak,"  is  brought  to  the  feet  of  Jesus;  but  in 
every  view  of  the  case  it  would  be  better  that  the 
little  sins  of  children  should  never  develop  into  the 
great  sins  of  desperate  and  hardened  sinners.  The 
story  of  the  prodigal,  redeemed  from  the  wretched- 
ness of  an  outcast  swineherd  to  the  blessedness  of 
sonship  and  home,  is  enough  to  move  the  heart  of 
a  demon  ;  but  it  had  been  better  and  more  beauti- 
ful, and  more  pleasing  to  God,  that  the  son  should 
never  have  become  a  reprobate.* 

"  Shall  we  continue  in  sin,  that  grace  may  abound  ? 
God  forbid ! " 

The  child  whose  sound  conversion  is  delayed — by 
his  own  willfulness,  or  by  the  mistakes  or  indiffer- 
ence or  unbelief  of  friends — even  though  he  may 
afterward  be  regenerated  and  be  saved,  suffers  an 
incalculable  loss  by  the  delay.  To  keep  men  out  of 
hell  is  not  the  chief  end  or  glory  of  the  salvation 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  brought  into  the  world,  but 
rather  to  save  tliem  from  sin,  and  to  make  them  un- 
fit for  such  a  place  as  hell  and  for  such  companion- 
ship as  that  of  the  lost. 

Saul  of  Tarsus  was  a  great  sinner,  and,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  he  became  a  great  saint ;  but  his  sins 

*  The  elder  brother  does  not  show  what  the  younger  ought  to  have 
been.  His  self-satisfied  Pharisaism  was  itself  a  "going  away"  from 
God  and  from  true  "holiness." 


38  Our  Children. 

did  not  help  to  make  him  a  saint.  He  had  been  a 
greater  saint  had  he  not  been  so  great  a  sinner.  Per- 
secution of  the  saints  made  no  contribution  to  the 
development  of  his  piety.  True,  he  burst  forth  into 
irrepressible  and  grateful  songs  whenever  he  thought 
of  the  infinite  mercy  that  was  showed  to  him.  Truly 
and  thankfully  did  he  say:  ''This  is  a  faithful  say- 
ing and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus 
came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners ;  of  whom  I  am 
chief."  But  if  he  had  embraced  Christ  before  that 
day  of  blood  and  darkness,  when  he  "stood  by"  to 
sanction  the  murder  of  ''  His  first  martyr,  St.  Ste- 
phen " — to  have  been  saved  from  the  commission  of 
such  a  sin  would  have  tuned  his  heart  to  songs  as 
grateful  as  those  which  celebrate  his  pardon.  Do 
we  not  think  too  little  of  this — the  blessedness  of 
being  saved  from  the  commission  of  great  sins  ? 
We  do  not  discount  the  riches  of  Divine  grace — the 
power  of  God's  spirit  in  changing  the  heart  of  Saul 
of  Tarsus,  but  we  must  think  it  had  been  unspeak- 
ably better  for  the  great  apostle  never  to  have 
blasphemed  the  name  of  Jesus,  never  to  have  ''  per- 
secuted "  his  saints,  "  even  unto  strange  cities." 

David  felt  this  when  God's  preventing  grace, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  wise  and  gentle  Abi- 
gail, held  back  his  hand  from  slaying  the  churlish 
Nabal.  ''  And  David  said  to  Abigail,  Blessed  be  the 
Lord  God  of  Israel,  which  sent  thee  this  day  to  meet 
me  :  and  blessed  be  thy  advice,  and  blessed  be  thou 


Prevention  of  Sin  an  InvahLable  Merey.         39 

which  hast  kept  me  this  day  from  coming  to  shed 
blood,  and  from  avenging  myself  with  mine  own 
hand."  Abigail  was  that  day,  indeed,  the  good 
angel  of  the  hunted  outlaw  and  anointed  king. 
And  such  always  are  those  wise  children  of  God, 
whose  "blessed  advice"  and  blessed  influence  save 
us,  by  grace  divine,  from  putting  forth  our  rash 
hands  to  sin. 

It  is  always  better  not  to  sin.  Nothing  in  earth 
or  heaven  can  make  it  better  for  a  child  to  become 
a  great  sinner.  Always  and  every-where  sin  is  an 
infinite  evil.  Its  prevention  should  inspire  our  loft- 
iest zeal  and  command  our  deepest  gratitude.  Once 
more  we  say,  Paul  had  been  a  greater  saint  had  he 
not  been  so  great  a  sinner.  This  may  be  gainsaid 
and  misunderstood,  but  it  is  to  us  a  truth — deeply 
and  inexpugnably  fixed  in  mind,  and  heart,  and 
conscience.  And  we  believe  that  God's  word,  and 
sound  reason,  and  universal  observation  and  experi- 
ence, prove,  illustrate,  and  confirm  the  opinion  to 
be  the  truth. 

The  soul  that  is  early  saved  from  sin — if  it  only 
be  fed  and  nurtured  aright — must  grow  up  into  a 
fairer  and  more  symmetrical  character  than  the  soul 
that  continues  long  in  rebellion,  and  that  bears,  per- 
haps always,  the  scars  of  its  old  wounds.  There  is 
a  volume  of  meaning  in  the  title  of  one  of  Dr. 
South's  sermons:  *' The  Prevention  of  Sin  an  In- 
valuable Mercy."     One  paragraph  we  may  quote  : — • 


40  Our  Children. 

Every  commission  of  sin  introduces  into  trie  soul  a  certain 
degree  of  hardness,  and  an  aptness  to  continue  in  that  sin.  It 
is  a  known  maxim,  that  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  throw  out 
than  to  let  in.  Every  degree  of  entrance  is  a  degree  of  posses- 
sion. Sin  talcen  into  the  soul  is  like  a  liquor  poured  into  a 
vessel ;  so  much  of  it  as  it  fills  it  also  seasons.  The  touch  and 
tincture  go  together.  So  that,  although  the  body  of  the  liquor 
should  be  poured  out  again,  yet  still  it  leaves  that  tang  behind 
it  which  makes  the  vessel  fitter  for  that  than  any  other.  In 
like  manner  every  act  of  sin  strangely  transforms  and  works 
over  the  soul  to  its  own  likeness :  sin  in  this  being  to  the  soul 
like  fire  to  combustible  matter ;  it  assimilates  before  it  destroys 
it.  .  .  .  And  every  commission  of  sin  imprints  upon  the  soul  a 
further  disposition  and  proneness  to  sins  :  as  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  degrees  of  heat  are  more  easily  introduced  than  the 
first.  Every  one  is  both  a  preparative  and  a  step  to  the  next. 
Drinking  both  quenches  the  present  thirst  and  provokes  it  for 
the  future.  When  the  soul  is  beaten  frohi  its  first  station,  and 
the  mounds  and  outworks  of  virtue  are  once  broken  down,  it 
becomes  quite  another  thing  from  what  it  was  before.  In  one 
single  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  when  the  act  is  over,  yet 
the  relish  remains ;  and  the  remembrance  of  the  first  rrpast  is 
an  easy  allurement  to  the  second.  One  visit  is  enough  to  be- 
gin an  acquaintance  ;  and  this  point  is  gained  by  it,  that  when 
the  visitant  comes  again  he  is  no  more  a  stranger. 

Who  that  knows  himself,  or  that  is  an  observer  of 
others,  can  doubt  that  the  Jiabit  of  shi,  acquired 
previous  to  conversion,  itself  constitutes  a  danger  ? 
Apostasy  generally  takes  place  in  the  line  of  the  old 
habits  that  in  the  days  of  sin,  dug  themselves  deep 
channels  through  mind  and  heart  and  life.  When 
a  river,  turned  from  its  course,  breaks  out  of  its 
new  channel,  it  returns  to  the  old.     Illustrations  of 


Prevention  of  Sin  an  Invaluable  Mercy.        41 

this  truth  will  come  trooping  into  the  recollections 
of  every  experienced  and  observant  pastor.  It  is  a 
sort  of  military  axiom  that  "  the  strength  of  a  forti- 
fication is  the  strength  of  its  weakest  point."  How 
many  mature  Christians  feel  this  most  keenly  !  Al- 
though they  are  strong  in  the  Christian  virtues,  they 
bitterly  lament  their  weakness  in  resisting  the  evil 
tendencies  that  the  old  habits  of  sin  set  in  motion. 

From  how  many  bitter  and  unavailing  regrets 
will  early  conversion  save  our  children  !  Paul  never 
alluded  to  his  old  life  of  sin  without  unutterable 
sorrow,  nor  can  any  good  man  gloat  over  the  scenes 
of  his  early  wickedness.  How  sorrowful  to  recall 
opportunities  wasted,  privileges  perverted,  grace  de- 
spised, goodness  contemned !  How  sad  to  think 
that  we  ever  did,  or  could,  through  the  dark  days 
of  rebellion,  treat  such  a  Saviour  as  Jesus  is  so  un- 
lovingly  as  to  sin  against  him ! 

And  who  shall  recall  for  us  the  evil  influence  of 
the  days  of  evil  ?  Who  shall  undo  the  ruin  of  souls, 
blighted  by  the  evil  influence  of  him  who  served  sin 
and  Satan  before  he  turned  to  God  ? 

Read  the  history  of  Manasseh,  king  of  Israel,  the 
wicked  son  of  the  good  Hezekiah.  He  "  wrought 
uncleanness  with  greediness,"  committing  all  man- 
ner of  sin.  Late  in  life,  under  the  heavy  hand  of 
an  avenging  Providence,  "  he  besought  the  Lord 
his  God,  and  humbled  himself  greatly  before  the 
God  of  his  fathers."     Infinite  was  the  mercy  that 


42  Our  Children. 

heard  and  accepted  such  a  sinner.  But  Maiiasseh's 
pardon  and  Manasseh's  salvation  could  not  undo 
the  evil  that  he  had  already  done.  Hundreds,  per- 
haps thousands,  went  down  to  hell,  as  the  result  of 
his  false  doctrines  and  wicked  ways,  even  before  his 
repentance  and  pardon.  Nor  did  his  repentance 
and  pardon  stop  the  long  procession  of  rebellious 
ones — full  of  sin  and  doomed  to  death — that  kept 
marching  on  and  down  to  their  fate. 

When  a  man  launches  a  false  word  upon  the 
stream  of  time  it  is  gone  from  him  forever.  He 
cannot  recall  it.  When  a  man  commits  a  sin  it  goes 
forth  from  him ;  it  may  be  pardoned,  it  cannot  be 
recalled.  The  sinner,  through  God's  great  mercy, 
may  be  saved  from  the  doom  he  deserves,  but  his 
sin  goes  on  forever,  propagating  itself  in  other  souls. 
O,  who  shall  tell  us  how  far,  how  wide,  how  deep, 
the  leaven  of  sin  and  death  will  work  ! 

After  Manasseh's  repentance  and  conversion  he 
exerted  himself  to  undo  the  evil  that  he  had  done. 
His  success  was  small.  He  did,  indeed,  **  take  away 
the  strange  gods,  and  the  idol  out  of  the  house  of 
the  Lord."  He  tried  hard  to  arrest  the  downward 
course  of  the  nation,  and  to  make  some  atonement 
for  the  ruin  he  liad  brought  on  his  people.  He 
not  only  cast  the  implements  of  idolatry  out  of  the 
city  of  Jerusalem,  but  *'  he  repaired  the  altar  of  the 
Lord,  and  sacrificed  thereon  peace-offerings  and 
thank-offerings,  and  commanded  Judah  to  serve  the 


Prevention  of  Sin  an  Invalnable  Mercy.         43 

Lord  God  of  Israel.''  Alas !  Judah  had  learned 
from  him  to  disobey  God,  and  to  give  herself  to 
idols.  There  was  a  partial  and  temporary  reforma- 
tion ,  but  the  tide  was  only  held  in  check;  Manas- 
seh  could  not  turn  it  back.  The  brief  arrest  of  the 
flood  seemed  only  to  gather  the  waters  for  their 
final  plunge.  When  one  cuts  the  dikes  and  lets 
in  the  sea,  wailings,  and  lamentations,  and  wringing 
of  hands,  will  not  drive  back  the  waves. 

Sad  as  a  tragedy  in  which  all  the  actors  die,  is 
the  closing  record  of  the  reign  of  Manasseh  and  his 
son.  Thicker  and  blacker  grew  the  shadows  as  the 
night  of  ruin  settled  down  upon  his  house.  "  Amon 
was  two  and  twenty  years  old  when  he  began  to 
reign,  and  reigned  two  years  in  Jerusalem.  But  he 
did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord, 
as  did  Manasseh  his  father:  for  Amon  sacrificed 
unto  all  the  carved  images  which  Manasseh  his 
father  had  made,  and  served  them ;  and  humbled 
not  himself  before  the  Lord,  as  Manasseh  his  father 
had  humbled  himself;  but  Amon  trespassed  more 
and  more.  And  his  servants  conspired  against  him, 
and  slew  him  in  his  own  house," 

Very  sad  is  the  sight  of  this  old  man  trying  in 
vain  to  undo  the  evil  he  had  done.  Retribution 
followed  his  sin.  He  was  saved  by  the  infinite 
mercy  that  heard  and  accepted  his  penitential  tears 
and  prayers.  But  bitter  regrets  followed  him  to  his 
grave.     Ghostly  forms  stood  about  him,  reminding 


44  Our  Children. 

him  of  the  souls  he  had  destroyed.  Will  Manasseh 
not  lament  these  undone  souls  forever?  How  true 
is  that  Scripture  which  saith  :  **  If  fire  break  out, 
and  catch  in  thorns,  so  that  the  stacks  of  corn,  or 
the  standing  corn,  or  the  field  be  consumed  there- 
with, he  that  kindled  the  fire  shall  surely  make 
restitution." 

We  knew  a  preacher — a  man  of  genius,  and  pow- 
er, and  deep  devotion.  He  was  once  a  great  sinner. 
He  never  mentioned  his  old  life  except  to  deplore 
his  sins,  and  to  magnify  the  mercy  of  God.  On  one 
occasion,  referring  to  his  great  and  merciful  deliver- 
ance, he  thought  of  the  evil  he  had  done  before  his 
repentance  and  conversion.  He  paused  a  moment, 
and  then  with  a  sobbing  cry  that  would  have  moved 
a  stone,  he  said,  "  But  I  am  afraid  there  are  souls  in 
hell  that  I  sent  there ! "  And  then,  while  the  tears 
streamed  down  his  face,  he  cried,  "  O  Jesus,  Jesus, 
tell  them  how  sorry  I  am,  how  sorry  I  am  ! " 

Would  God  that  we  knew  that  the  ''prevention 
of  sin  is  an  invaluable  mercy!" 


TJic  EnligJitening  and  Quickening  Spirit.       45 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   ENLIGHTENING  AND   QUICKENING   SPIRIT. 

WE  have  seen  how  easily,  we  might  say  how 
naturally,  we  fall  in  with  the  notion  that  a 
child,  in  order  to  embrace  Christ,  must  know  so 
much  of  ''  doctrines  and  rules,"  and  such  things. 
Even  in  the  case  of  a  little  child,  we  seem  to  hesi- 
tate to  take  Christ  and  the  blessing  of  his  Gospel 
by  faith.  There  are  thousands  like  the  local  preach- 
er mentioned  before,  who  cling  to  the  notion  that 
a  child  should  ''  know  the  doctrines  and  the  rules, 
and  so  forth."  Certainly  these  things  should  be 
known,  but  not  as  a  condition  of  his  coming  to 
Christ. 

In  this  connection  another  prevalent  and  hurtful 
error  may  be  mentioned :  We  seem  to  think  that 
religious  knowledge  is  like  other  knowledge,  or  even 
more  difficult  to  attain.  Parents  will  have  their 
children  study  arithmetic,  and  geography,  and  gram- 
mar, and  such  things,  and  still  talk  about  their  be- 
ing too  young  to  know  enough  to  join  the  Church 
or  to  be  religious.  But  it  is  far  otherwise  ;  religious 
truth  is  more  easily  learned  by  a  child  than  matne- 
matical  or  other  scientific  truth.  In  a  most  impor- 
tant  sense   religious  truth   is  more  normal  to  the 


46  Our  Children. 

mind  of  a  child.  God  has  adjusted  the  word  of  the 
kingdom  to  human  nature  so  perfectly,  that  as  soon 
as  a  child  can  understand  any  thing,  it  can  under- 
stand, partially  at  least,  and  sufficiently  for  its  per- 
sonal salvation,  the  rudimentary  truths  of  religion. 
And  herein  we  find  one  of  the  most  convincing  and 
irresistible  evidences  of  the  Divine  origin  of  the 
Gospel — its  perfect  adaptedness  to  our  nature.  God, 
who  made  the  light  for  the  eye  and  the  eye  for  the 
light,  has  assuredly  adjusted  the  Gospel  to  the  soul 
of  man.  It  is  adapted  to  his  condition,  and  it  meets 
all  his  wants.  It  is  impossible,  as  it  seems  to  us, 
that  one,  who  understands  both  man  and  the  Gos- 
pel, can  doubt  that  He  who  made  man  gave  him 
the  Gospel.  Fallen,  though  he  is,  man  has  more 
susceptibility,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  than  to  any  other  form  of  knowledge. 
And  this  should  not  surprise  us,  since  the  whole 
remedial  scheme  was  designed  for  fallen  man.  It  is 
not  a  Gospel  for  unfallen  and  innocent,  but  for  fallen 
and  sinful  intelligences.  Jesus  himself  said,  '*  I  am 
not  come  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  re- 
pentance." It  is  very  clear,  as  it  seems  to  us,  that  it 
is  as  natural  that  a  child  should  apprehend  a  Gospel 
truth  as  that  he  should  hear  or  breathe. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  not  mere  knowledge — it  is 
somewhat  like  intuition.  Dr.  John  Brown,  of  Edin- 
burgh, says,  in  one  of  his  lectures  on  "  The  Sayings 
and  Discourses  of  our  Lord,"  ''  The  New  Testament 


The  Enlightening  and  Quickejiing  Spirit.       47 

has  an  answering  witness  in  every  man's  conscience." 
Yes,  and  in  every  child's  conscience.  If  one  is 
teaching  a  child  a  rule  in  grammar,  or  arithmetic, 
there  is  need  of  tedious  and  repeated  explanations, 
and,  generally,  when  it  is  learned,  it  is,  at  first,  and, 
for  the  most  part,  for  a  long  time  after,  only  lodged 
in  the  memory,  to  be  understood,  by  and  by,  when 
the  reflective  faculties  begin  to  develop.  But  when 
a  child  is  told  that  it  ought  to  be  good,  to  obey  its 
parents,  to  speak  the  truth,  to  fear  God,  and  to  pray, 
as  soon  as  it  can  understand  what  you  say,  it  under- 
stands what  you  mean.  What  it  has  learned  is 
more  than  something  simply  remembered,  it  is 
something  known. 

The  five-year-old  boy,  mentioned  in  a  preceding 
chapter,  had  as  distinct  a  sense  of  the  obligation  to 
speak  the  truth  as  his  father  had.  The  religious 
truth  a  little  child  may  comprehend  may  be  small, 
but  what  it  knows,  it  knozvs.  We  firmly  believe 
that  a  child's  mind  seizes  upon,  apprehends,  and 
retains  a  religious  truth  more  readily  than  any  other 
truth.  Explain  to  a  child  that  he  is  a  sinner ;  that 
he  needs  a  Saviour;  show  him  that  Jesus  is  such  a 
Saviour  as  he  needs.  Now  bring  the  same  truths 
before  the  mind  of  a  man,  and  there  is  less  differ- 
ence between  the  knowledge  of  the  child  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  man  than  most  persons  are  apt  to 
suppose.  The  man  may  know  more  abo2it  sin  and 
moie  about  Christ  than  the  child,  but  he  does  not. 


48  Our  Children. 

as  we  think,  know  more  clearly  than  the  child  the 
few  things  the  child  does  know. 

One  reason  we  fail  to  recognize  the  adaptedness 
of  the  Gospel  to  a  child's  apprehension,  and  fail  to 
see  how  easily  and  readily  a  child  may  learn  ele- 
mentary and  saving  religious  truth,  is  that  we  do 
not  know  or  estimate  aright  the  work  done  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  There  can  be  little  question  that  in 
much  of  our  thinking  on  the  subject  of  the  religious 
capabilities  of  children,  we  forget  or  undervalue  the 
illuminating  and  quickening  influences  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

How  soon  does  the  Spirit  begin  his  work  in  the 
minds  of  little  children  ?  We  do  not  know.  We 
know  that  one  child  at  least — John  the  Baptist,  the 
son  of  holy  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth — was  ''  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  from  his  mother's  womb." 

In  him  at  least 

••  Prevenient  grace  descending," 

as  Milton  expresses  it,  went  before  the  dawn  of  in- 
telligence and  prepared  the  way  for  the  apprehen- 
sion and  belief  and  love  of  the  truth. 

And  who  knows  but  the  same  gracious  Spirit  now 
moves — silently,  mysteriously  it  may  be,  but  truly 
and  efficaciously — upon  the  hearts  of  all  our  children 
from  the  very  day  that  they  are  born  ?  We  do  not 
affirm,  for  the  word  of  God  does  not  say.  Yet, 
surely,  no  one  can  deny,  for  the  word  of  God  does 
not  deny.     May  we  not  ask,  with  solemn  reverence, 


TJie  Enlightening  and  Quickening  Spirit.      49 

would  it  not  be  like  our  loving  and  compassionate 
Father  to  surround  our  little  children  with  all  holy 
influences  from  the  very  hour  they  enter  upon  their 
pilgrimage  through  the  wilderness  of  this  world? 
With  what  tenderness  and  anxious  solicitude  even 
earthly  parents  nurse  and  guard  their  helpless  babes! 
But  we  do  not — for  we  cannot — love  them  as  God 
does.  "  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give 
good  gifts  unto  your  children ;  how  much  more 
shall  your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  him?"  And  what  "asking"  is  a 
little  baby's  helplessness  and  need  of  divine  protec- 
tion, love,  and  preventing  grace  ! 

It  may  be  that  God  has  not  informed  us  upon  this 
subject,  just  as  he  has  left  us  in  ignorance  of  his 
mode  of  preparing  an  infant  soul  for  heaven  when 
he  calls  it  out  of  this  evil  world  unto  himself,  because 
this  is  a  blessing  that  does  not  depend  simply  upon 
our  co-operation,  and  that  cannot  be  altogether  hin- 
dered by  our  unbelief  We  know  that  no  wicked- 
ness in  the  parents  can  hinder  God's  work  in  pre- 
paring the  soul  of  their  departing  infant  for  the 
happiness  of  heaven.  And,  as  we  suppose,  his  pre- 
venting grace — while  its  ultimate  results  may  be 
m:>rred  by  parental  unbelief  and  sin — cannot  be  al- 
together, at  least,  if  at  all,  kept  away  from  the  soul 
of  a  little  babe  by  a  father's  or  a  mother's  wicked- 
ness. 

Who  will  say  that  the  sun's  rays  arc  not  warming 
4 


50  Our  Children. 

the  earth,  through  all  the  long  winter,  although 
the  grass  does  not  grow,  the  flowers  do  not  bloom, 
and  the  birds  do  not  sing  till  the  springtime  comes? 
We  do  not  value  aright  the  power  and  blessing  of 
a  winter's  sun.  We  look  on  the  dreary  land- 
scape and  the  earth  seems  dead.  But  suppose 
that  sun  removed  from  his  place  Then,  indeed, 
would  the  winter  of  death  come  upon  us ;  the  ice 
would  strike  down  into  the  heart  of  the  earth,  and 
the  end  would  come.  But  when  the  spring  does 
come,  and 

"  With  one  great  gush  of  blossoms  storms  the  world," 

and  the  summer  and  the  autumn,  with  their  green 
glories  and  ripening  harvests,  come  on  in  their  sea- 
son, we  know  the  power  of  the  sun.  But  without 
the  winter's  sun,  there  would  be  no  spring,  nor  sum- 
mer, nor  autumn  time. 

And  what  would  youth  or  manhood  be  without 
the  gracious  prevenient  work  of  the  all-enlightening 
and  quickening  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  What 
a  hopeless  task  it  would  be  to  teach  the  Gospel  to  a 
man  who  had  never  felt  the  influences  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  !  There  is  no  such  man  ;  it  is  inconceivable 
that  there  should  be.  There  are  men  who  have 
**  resisted,"  and  "  grieved,"  and  '^  quenched  "  these 
divine  influences,  but  there  is  no  man  \\ho  never  felt 
them.  And  this  agrees  with  experience.  Mission- 
aries have  found  that  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  are 


The  Enlightening  and  Quickening  Spirit.       5 1 

as  normal,  so  to  speak,  to  the  most  debased  heathen, 
as  to  the  most  civihzed  and  enHghtened  nations. 

Why  should  we  doubt  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
moves  upon  the  heart  of  a  child  long  before  our 
dull  eyes  can  detect  the  signs  of  his  presence?  Do 
we  not  read  that  when  *'  the  earth  was  without 
form,  and  void ;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of 
the  deep,"  that  ''  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters  ?  "  Afterward  came  the  light  and 
the  life  that  manifested  the  creative  wisdom  and 
power  of  God.  Once,  at  least,  in  the  case  of  him,  as 
we  have  seen,  who  was  to  "go  before  "  and  ''  pre- 
pare the  way  "  of  our  Lord,  the  Holy  Ghost  did  fill 
the  heart  of  a  child — and  oi  2.  fallen  child  of  a  fallen 
man — from  the  very  hour  of  its  birth.  Whether 
this  be  an  exceptional  case  or  not,  one  thing  we 
know;  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  in  the  heart  of  John, 
was  not  arbitrary  or  capricious;  it  violated  no  law 
of  the  human  constitution  or  of  the  divine  govern- 
ment. Most  certainly,  as  it  seems  to  us,  we  are 
warranted,  by  all  we  can  learn  from  the  word  of 
God,  in  praying  that  our  little  ones  may  receive  "the 
gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  "  from  the  day  that  they  are 
born.  What  pious  father  or  mother  is  there  who 
does  not  pray,  as  soon  as  their  children  are  born, 
that  God  would  bless  them  ?  What  do  we  mean  by 
such  prayers  if  the  Holy  Spirit  may  not  "  move 
upon  "  them,  although  their  thoughts  as  yet  may  be 
*"  without  form,  and  void." 


52  Our  Children. 

Nor  do  we  estimate  aright  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  teacher  of  the  truth  of  God,  throughout 
the  entire  course  of  Christian  growth  and  experi- 
ences. 

The  great  promise  of  our  Saviour,  "  The  Com- 
forter, which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father 
shall  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things," 
is  surely  not  to  be  confined  to  the  twelve  who  were 
then  listening  to  his  valedictory  discourse.  This 
promise,  in  all  its  grace  and  fullness,  is  ours  for  all 
our  needs,  as  it  was  theirs  for  all  their  needs.  And 
little  children,  as  truly  as  adult  believers,  may  plead 
it  and  be  glad  in  it. 

What  a  grown  man  knows  of  God  is  not  the  re- 
sult of  his  studies  simply — is  not  the  conclusion  of 
his  philosophy,  nor  the  discovery  of  his  reason.  To 
know  God  truly  we  must  be  taught  of  God.  ''As  ii 
is  written,  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things 
which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him. 
But  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his  Spirit : 
for  the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep 
things  of  God.  For  what  man  knoweth  the  things 
of  a  man,  save  the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him? 
Even  so  the  things  of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Now  we  have  received,  not  the 
spirit  of  the  world,  but  the  Spirit  which  is  of  God ; 
that  we  might  know  the  things  that  are  freely  given 
to  us  of  God." 


The  Enlightening  and  Quickening  Spirit.       53 

When  we  think  on  the  natural  depravity  of  our 
children,  let  us  remciiber  that  the  Spirit  of  God — 
*  quickening  them  that  are  dead  in  trespasses  and 
in  sins  " — moves  upon  their  hearts,  as  upon  ours  ; 
when  we  think  on  their  ignorance  of  spiritual  things, 
and  deplore — as  it  becomes  us  to  do — our  want  of 
aptness  in  teaching  them  the  *'  truth  as  it  is  in  Je- 
sus," let  us  remember,  for  our  encouragement,  that 
the  ''  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,"  is  their 
teacher  as  well  as  ours.  How  wise,  how  careful, 
how  patient,  how  loving,  and,  if  we  may  write  such 
words  of  Him,  how  apt  is  this  blessed  Teacher  of  hu- 
man souls,  no  tongue  can  tell.  There  are  those  who 
are  called  teachers  among  men  who  do  their  work 
carelessly  when  they  instruct  little  children.  But 
the  wise  and  loving  Spirit  of  God  knows  what 
a  little  child  is  —  its  great  worth  and  its  many 
needs. 

During  the  summer  of  1875  we  had  a  long  con- 
versation with  a  very  saintly  woman — whose  hus- 
band was  like-minded  with  her — about  her  son,  an 
only  child.  He  is  now  a  man,  and  himself  a  Chris- 
tian teacher  of  children.  We  had  known  him  when 
he  was  a  school-boy,  and  he  had  always  seemed  to 
us  singularly  pure  in  word  and  deed.  We  learned 
the  secret  of  his  early  maturity  in  religion,  and  of  his 
consistent  and  beautiful  religious  character.  God 
had  given  them  only  this  one  child,  and  from  his 
birth  their  prayer  had  been,  not  merely  that  God 


54  Our  Children. 

would  spare  his  life,  but  that  he  might  be  kept  from 
sin.  Their  prayer  was  full  of  the  spirit  of  Christ : 
*'  I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldest  take  them  out  of 
the  world,  but  that  thou  shouldest  keep  them  from 
the  cviiy  Neither  his  *'  grandmother  Lois,"  nor 
''  his  mother  Eunice,"  were  more  prayerful,  or  careful 
in  teaching  the  way  of  righteousness  to  young  Tim- 
othy, than  were  our  friends  in  bringing  up  their  son 
*'  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  They 
dedicated  him  most  solemnly  to  God,  and  God's 
blessing  upon  him  they  supplicated  day  by  day. 
Above  all,  they  prayed  for  the  presence  and  influ- 
ences of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  he  might  be  sancti- 
fied from  his  birth.  And,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  their 
prayer  was  heard.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  their  boy 
in  his  early  childhood — when  barely  beyond  the  peri- 
od of  infancy — gave  his  young  and  willing  heart  to 
God?  that  he  has,  since  that  early  consecration  of 
himself,  run  joyfully  in  the  way  of  God's  command- 
ments ?  that  he  was  saved  from  the  crimes  that  so 
often  blight  the  bloom  and  promise  of  boyhood  ?  Is 
it  any  wonder  that,  in  answer  to  such  prayers  and  in 
co-operation  with  such  parental  love  and  fidelity,  the 
Holy  Ghost  "was  given" — that  the  ''fruit  of  the 
Spirit"  did  appear  in  early  childhood,  or  that  now, 
in  manhood's  prime,  they  go  on  multiplying  and 
maturing  to  the  glory  of  God's  grace  ?  that  he  is  a 
"  crown  of  honor  "  to  his  parents,  a  joy  and  a  bless- 
ing to  a  large  circle  of  friends? 


The  Enlightening  and  Qidckcning  Spirit.       5  5 

"  Lord,  we  believe  ;  help  thou  our  unbelief !  "  For 
our  children  also,  may  we  believe  and  pray  for  "  the 
promise  of  the  Father ;  "  open  wide  our  own  hearts 
to  his  blessed  visitation  ;  and  joyfully,  "  as  workers 
together  with  Him,"  "  bring  our  young  children  to 
Jesus,  that  he  may  touch  them  !  " 


t;6  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER   V. 

ON  MERE  ABILITY  TO  TALK  RELIGION. 

OFTENTIMES  we  pass  hasty  and  unjust  judg- 
ments  upon  youthful  Christians.  Sometimes  a 
child's  religious  knowledge  and  experience  are  dis- 
counted in  our  minds  because  his  power  of  expres- 
sion is  limited.  He  tells  what  he  knows  and  feels 
imperfectly  and  with  difficulty.  His  simple  speech 
is  an  offense  to  the  precision  of  orthodoxy  and  the 
pride  of  pedantry.  But  there  is  no  greater  mistake 
of  the  kind  than  that  as  "  words  are  the  signs  of 
ideas,"  there  will  necessarily  be  words  where  there 
are  ideas,  or  that  there  are  no  ideas  where  there  are 
no  words.  As  if  words  were  the  only  signs  of  ideas 
— the  only  instruments  of  expression  ! 

The  wisest  and  most  cultured  men  have  many 
thoughts  for  which  they  can  find  no  adequate  ex- 
pression. The  best  songs  have  not  been  sung,  ex- 
cept in  meek  and  lowly  hearts,  by  inaudible  voices, 
and  to  the  minstrelsy  of  unseen  harps.  The  noblest 
thoudits  that  stir  man's  heart  cannot  find  utter- 
ance.  The  great  sculptor  Thorwaldsen,  it  is  said, 
was  once  seen  contemplating  through  sad  tears  a 
statue  of  the  child  Jesus,  which  he  had  just  com- 
pleted.    His  pupils,  standing  by,  asked  the  cause 


On  Mere  Ability  to  Talk  Religion.  57 

of  his  depression.  He  answered  with  deep  sorrow 
in  his  tones  : — 

"  I  shall  never  have  another  great  thought." 

''What  do  you  mean,  master?"  they  cried  in  a 
breath.     His  answer  contains  a  true  philosophy. 

'*  Up  to  this  time  my  conception  of  what  a  work 
of  art  ought  to  be,  has  been  far  beyond  my  power 
of  execution  in  the  work  itself.  This  statue  satisfies 
ineT 

And  Thorwaldsen  was  right — his  power  of  con- 
ception was  already  in  its  decadence.  It  is  a  sad 
thing  to  see  a  man  satisfied  with  any  thing  that  he 
has  done — a  song  he  has  sung,  a  picture  he  has 
painted,  a  statue  he  has  carved,  a  book  he  has 
written,  a  sermon  he  has  preached,  a  duty  he  has 
performed,  a  life  he  has  lived.  Such  satisfaction  is 
the  token  of  decadence  and  the  forerunner  of  death. 
Adequate  expression  never  comes  forsome  thoughts, 
for  some  emotions,  for  some  aspirations.  The  no- 
bler the  thoughts,  the  purer  and  deeper  the  emo- 
tions, the  loftier  and  diviner  the  aspirations,  the 
greater  the  difficulty  of  expression.  '*  Words  "  are 
the  "  signs  "  of  ideas,  but  they  are  only  signs — mere 
symbols  of  the  greater  things  they  cannot  reveal. 
Who,  that  by  some  noble  thought  or  generous  sen- 
timent has  been  lifted  above  himself,  has  not  felt  all 
this?  And  there  are  some  rare  moments  when  we 
feel  that  speech  is  an  impertinence.  When  we  stand 
upon  the   highest  Pisgahs  and  the  Sun  of  Truth 


58  Our  Children. 

pours  down  his  beams,  and  all  the  landscape—  with 
bright  streams,  and  green  fields,  and  shaded  woods, 
and  distant  mountains — shines  before  us  and  startles 
and  subdues  like  a  new  revelation  in  the  manifesting 
light,  we  feel  that  silence  is  a  necessity. 

On  one  occasion,  many  years  ago,  a  gifted  preacher, 
the  great  and  good  Lovick  Pierce — who  still  abides 
with  the  Church,  saintly  and  venerable,  honored  in 
all  the  gates  of  Zion,  wise  as  Nestor  and  loving  as 
St.  John  —  was  discoursing  on  one  of  the  grand 
themes  of  the  Gospel.  The  Spirit  of  power  was 
upon  him.  "  The  skin  of  his  face  shone  "  as  if  he 
had  just  descended  from  some  mountain  of  glorious 
vision.  Intellect  and  feeling  were  at  their  highest 
and  most  confluent  tides  that  day.  Head  and  heart 
worked  together.  Argument  and  passion  fused  and 
coalesced.  He  carried  his  congregation  with  him. 
Farther  and  farther  they  moved  from  the  shore,  till 
at  last  they  tided  over  the  bar  and  were  fairly  out  at 
sea.  And  how  wide,  how  deep  is  the  sea !  And 
then  the  preacher  paused,  as  if  feeling  carefully  with 
his  longest  sounding  line  for  the  bottom,  so  far  out 
of  sight.  But  in  vain.  He  only  felt  the  tug  and 
undertow  of  mighty  tides  deep  down  in  the  sea. 
And  then  he  cried,  lifting  his  face  with  a  look  of 
rapture  :  "  Glory  be  to  God  !  I  can  find  no  bottom  !  " 

We  often  find  the  great  apostle  himself  strug- 
gling hopelessly  to  find  utterance  for  the  mighty 
thoughts  that  swelled  his  heart  with  joys  unuttera- 


On  Merc  Ability  to  Talk  Religion.  59 

ble.  When  he  had  completed  his  inspired  argument 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  setting  forth,  in 
words  chosen  by  the  Spirit,  man's  ruin  by  sin  and 
his  redemption  by  Christ,  as  one  vision  after  another 
of  God's  greatness  and  goodness  rose  before  his 
faith,  he  could  only  exclaim  in  the  fullness  of  his 
holy  joy,  "■  O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  !  How  unsearchable 
are  his  judgments  and  his  ways  past  finding  out !  " 

Many  times  have  we  heard,  in  love-feasts  and  ex- 
perience meetings,  from  simple  people,  a  word  that 
indicated  far  more  than  it  expressed,  accompanied, 
it  may  be,  with  a  look  or  gesture  that  spoke  unutter- 
able things. 

One  scene  we  recall.  We  were  standing  in  the 
pulpit  with  the  now  sainted  Dr.  A.  L.  P.  Green,  at 
a  camp-meeting  near  Columbia,  Tennessee,  in  the 
autumn  of  187 1.  It  was  an  hour  of  holy  joy,  for  the 
Church  had  won  a  great  victory  that  day.  Sinners 
had  been  converted  and  saints  had  been  made  happy 
in  God.  They  were  singing  a  camp-meeting  hymn, 
in  which  we  joined  as  well  as  we  were  able.  Right 
before  the  pulpit  stood  a  little  old  man  whom  we 
had  observed,  in  the  morning,  as  one  of  the  homeli- 
est men  we  had  ever  seen.  He  was  dwarfed  in 
stature,  and  his  face  had  been  sadly  marred  by  dis- 
ease and  age.  Dr.  Green  called  our  attention  to  the 
man.  He  was  not  the  same  man  now.  The  joy  of 
grace  filled  his  heart,  and  shone  with  strange  bright- 


6o  Our  Children. 

ness  through  his  face.  "  He  was  transfigured  before 
us."  Now  he  seemed  beautiful  to  our  eyes.  His 
eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  his  voice,  rich  with  heav- 
enly gladness,  spoke  to  our  hearts  things  that  were 
unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

And  children  —  very  little  children  —  sometimes 
have  these  thoughts,  that  reach  out  toward  things 
infinite  and  eternal. 

We  have  heard  one  of  our  bishops  tell  of  his 
child-experience  in  religion.  Even  he,  with  all  his 
gift  of  expression,  cannot  tell  it  all  in  words.  The 
gesture,  the  tones,  the  look  on  his  face,  told  more 
than  his  tongue  could  tell.  How  distinctly  he  re- 
called the  time  when  his  mother  held  him  in  her  lap, 
and  looked  down  into  his  face  as  she  sang  her  fa- 
vorite hymn : — 

"  Alas  !  and  did  my  Saviour  bleed? 
And  did  my  Sov'reign  die  ? 
Would  he  devote  that  sacred  head 
For  such  a  worm  as  I  ?  " 

And  as  the  good  mother  sang  the  last  stanza, 

"  But  drops  of  grief  can  ne'er  repay 
The  debt  of  love  I  owe  : 
Here,  Lord,  I  give  myself  away, — 
'Tis  all  that  I  can  do," 

tears  dropped  from  her  eyes  as  she  looked  down 
upon  the  child  in  her  lap  and  fell  upon  his  face. 
As  the  good  bishop  told  us  these  things  his  voice 
trembled  and  his  eyes  filled,  as  if  he  still  felt  his 
mother's  arms  about  him. 


On  Mere  Ability  to  Talk  Religion.  6i 

How  deeply  the  impression  was  then  made  upon 
his  tender  mind — how  intensely  it  has  been  retained 
—that  a  good  and  sinless  One  had  died  for  him ! 
One  scene  he  recalled  with  pathetic  simplicity. 
When  a  little  child — his  mother's  songs  in  his  ears 
and  his  mother's  prayers  in  his  heart — he  was  play- 
ing near  the  house  in  a  skirt  of  woods  where  the 
autumn  shadows  and  sunshine  were  mingling  on  the 
ground,  and  the  autumn  gold  and  purple  were  upon 
the  leaves.     He  began  to  think  over  the  song, 

"  Alas  !  and  did  my  Saviour  bleed  ?  " 

The  thought  went  down  into  his  heart,  "  Jesus 
died  for  me — for  me,"  and  he  wondered,  *'  Shall  I 
ever  see  Jesus  ?     Will  he  ever  come  to  me  ?  " 

And  this  October  day,  as  we  write  of  these  things, 
a  saintly  face,  a  silvered  head,  and  a  bent  form  rises 
before  us,  and  the  echoes  of  the  first  song  we  re- 
member ever  to  have  heard,  and  the  sweet,  soft  notes 
of  the  first  tune  we  ever  learned  to  sing,  come  back 
to  us.  It  is  dear  grandmother,  sitting  in  the  low 
rocking  chair  with  a  baby  sister  in  her  arms,  singing 
to  one  of  the  old  tunes  she  had  learned  in  Virginia, 
when  the  first  circuit  preachers  came  to  her  father's 
house : — ■ 

"  Hark,  my  soul,  it  is  the  Lord  ; 
'Tis  thy  Saviour — hear  his  words. 
Jesus  speaks,  he  speaks  to  thee  : — 
'  Say,  poor  sinner,  lov'st  thou  me  ? '" 

How  that  question  stirred  our  young  heart — 

"  Say,  poor  sinner,  lov'st  thou  me  ?  " 


62  Our  Children. 

And  as  she  sang  on  of  Him  who  ''  delivered,"  and 
"  sought  "  out,  and  healed  poor  sinners  :  whose  love 
was  stronc^er  and  tenderer  than  a  mother's  for  her 
child,  we  wondered,  ''Can  He  love  me  better  than 
mother  loves  me?  "  And  as  she  sang  the  next  lines 
— well  do  we  remember  now  how  her  trembling 
voice  swelled  out  into  fuller  tones  at  this  stanza — 

"  Thine  is  an  unchanging  love, 
Higher  than  the  heights  above, 
Deeper  than  the  depths  beneath, 
Free  and  faithful,  strong  as  death," 

we  wanted  to  love  Him.  And  right  then,  though 
we  had  no  words,  we  did  ''love  Him  because  he 
first  loved  us." 

And  grandmother's  song  brings  back  another  re- 
membrance, that  grows  more  and  more  precious  as 
the  years  drift  us  onward.  In  the  soft  twilight 
mother  takes  our  hand  and  we  go  through  the  hall 
— where  the  first  presidents,  in  their  gilded  frames, 
were  always  looking  at  each  other — into  the  old- 
fashioned  parlor,  the  chairs  pushed  close  back 
against  the  wall.  In  the  left-hand  corner,  near  the 
book-case,  she  knelt  and  prayed  so  earnestly,  as  if 
pleading  with  One  she  knew  and  loved,  for  some 
great  favor.  "And,  O  God,"  she  prayed,  "  bless  my 
little  boy  and  make  him  good  !  "  That  prayer  was  no 
more  misunderstood  then  than  it  is  forgotten  now. 

From  the  night  our  parents  married  the  sacred 
fire  never  went  out.     The  morning  and  the  evening 


On  Mere  A  bility  to  Talk  Religion.  63 

came  not  more  regularly  than  the  morning  and  even- 
ing sacrifice.  And  when  the  priest  of  our  house 
passed  over  the  Jordan — that  parted  its  waves  be- 
fore him  as  his  **  feet  were  dipped  in  the  brim  of 
the  water"  and  ''  entered  into  his  rest " — his  children 
still  guarded  the  holy  fire.  And,  God  be  praised  ! 
it  has  never  gone  out  since  the  night  they  joined 
hands  and  hearts  in  the  old  village  church,  March 
II,  1838.  The  first  thing  in  this  world  that  we  re- 
member is  father,  sitting  by  the  window,  on  the  left 
of  the  fire-place,  in  mother's  room,  reading  the 
Bible.  How  strong  and  yet  how  soft,  how  firm 
and  yet  how  patient  he  was — governor,  priest,  and 
father  of  his  house  !  The  Bible  lesson  was  about 
Daniel  and  the  den  of  lions.  And  as  we  listened  to 
the  wonderful  story  we  thought,  not  so  generally  and 
broadly,  but  as  distinctly  then  as  now,  "■  it  is  better 
to  go  down  among  the  lions  than  to  worship  a  man 
or  an  idol  ;  it  is  better  to  die  than  sin." 

No :  we  must  not  measure  a  child's  knowledge  or 
experience  by  his  ability  to  express  what  he  knows 
and  feels — by  his  ability  to  talk  religion.  And  mere 
ability  to  talk  religion  is  one  of  the  least  satisfactory 
of  all  its  manifestations — one  of  the  most  uncertain 
and  delusive  tests  of  its  reality  and  measures  of  its 
power. 

Perhaps  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  adult  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  can  repeat  the  Articles  of  Re- 
ligion, or  make  an  argument  to  prove  their  truth. 


64  Our  Children. 

By  all  means  adults  should  know,  and  children 
should  learn,  the  Articles  of  Religion,  and  be  able 
to  explain  and  to  prove  them  ;  but  this  is  not  the 
knowledge  that  saves.  And  no  extent  or  accuracy, 
breadth  or  depth  of  such  knowledge,  is  saving  kno^^  1- 
edge.     Mere  knowledge  is  dead,  ''being  alone." 

It  would  be  exceedingly  misleading  to  estimate 
the  piety,  either  of  a  man  or  a  child,  by  his  ability 
to  state  his  creed  clearly  and  to  argue  for  it  ably. 
But  there  are  blunderers  who  catechise — in  such  a 
scholastic  and,  to  the  child  at  least,  dead  form  of 
words — about  his  faith  and  experience,  and  then 
discount  both,  because,  forsooth,  it  cannot  tell  its 
thoughts !  How  can  they  forget  the  words  of  our 
Lord :  "  And  whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little 
child  in  my  name  receiveth  me  ;  but  whoso  shall 
offend  one  of  these  little  ones  which  believe  in  me, 
it  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned  in  the 
depth  of  the  sea?" 

In  the  "Autobiography  and  Memoir  of  Guthrie" 
is  an  anecdote  that  well  illustrates  the  thought  that 
we  would  impress.  It  was  on  the  22d  of  February, 
1873,  the  day  before  he  died.  The  writer  of  the 
memoir  says :  "  On  the  22d,  in  conversation  with 
Admiral  Baillie  Hamilton,  (an  Episcopalian  fiiend 
of  former  years,  who  visited  and  prayed  with  him 
daily,)  he  mentioned  the  story  of  an  old  Scotch 
minister,    who    proposed    to    keep    back    from    the: 


On  Mere  Ability  to  Talk  Religion.  65 

Lord's  table  a  young  woman  whose  knowledge  he 
found  grievously  defective.  Rising  to  go,  the  girl 
burst  into  tears :  '  It's  true,  sir,  I  canna  speak  for 
him,  but  I  think  I  could  dee  for  him  ! '  " 

The  poor  girl  knew  the  Saviour  better  than  the 
honest  but  blundering  pastor,  who — under  shepherd 
though  he  claimed  to  be — knew  not  even  the  lambs 
of  the  fold.  And  there  are  many  children,  like  the 
Scotch  lassie,  who  cannot  *'  talk  for  Christ,"  but 
who  love  him  well  enough  to  '*  die  for  him."  Let 
us  take  heed  lest  we  require  of  them  what  our  Lord 
and  Master  has  not  required  ;  lest  we  lay  upon  them 
burdens  that  he  has  not  imposed ;  lest,  by  our  arbi- 
trary shibboleths,  we  slay  at  the  '*  passages  of  the 
Jordan"  those  who  are  truly  of  the  Lord's  chosen 
ones ;  lest,  by  our  misconceptions  and  unreasonable 
requirements,  we  make  the  Church,  which  ought  to 
be  a  "nursing  mother"  to  our  children,  a  stranger 
and  enemy ;  lest  we  ourselves,  by  our  hardness  and 
unbelief  and  want  of  love,  become  hinderers  instead 
of  helpers,  shutting  up  the  way  that  leads  our  little 
ones  to  the  Saviour. 

It  would  be  a  right  worthy  thing  if  godly  minis- 
ters a  nd  fathers  and  mothers  would  lend  a  hand  to 
clear  away  the  ecclesiastical  rubbish — heaped  up  by 
the  drift  of  centuries — that  confronts  and  hinders 
and  dismays  our  children  as  they  seek  the  Lord. 
Would  God  we  could  strike  one  good  blow  to  clear 
the  way  for  their  little  feet ! 


66  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"P^EED    MY    LAMBS.' 

"^T  JE  often  judge  the  conduct  of  young  Chris- 
*  ^  tians  harshly  because  we  expect  unreasonable 
and  unnatural  things  of  them.  We  too  frequently 
overlook  the  fact  that  a  child  converted  is  still  a 
child.  He  retains  not  only,  as  adults  do,  his  pecul- 
iar constitutional  temperament,  but  the  volatile  dis- 
position of  childhood.  It  is  as  irrational,  as  it  is 
unjust,  to  demand  of  a  child  that  he  should  assume 
old  ways  because  he  professes  religion.  To  do  this 
is  to  outrage  the  benignant  spirit  of  religion,  and  to 
do  violence  to  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  inno- 
cent traits  of  childhood— its  pure  and  spontaneous 
joyousness,  which  is  a  precious  gift  of  God  to 
brighten  a  dark  and  to  gladden  a  sorrowful  world. 

The  graces  of  a  converted  child  are,  like  itself,  in 
their  infancy.  With  time  and  favorable  conditions, 
they  will  ripen  into  the  maturest  ''  fruits  of  the 
Spirit."  How  rash  and  injurious  the  hand  that 
would  rudely  shake  off  the  pearly  blossoms  because 
the  dew  rests  upon  them  and  the  birds  sing  among 
them,  and  because,  as  yet,  they  are  only  blossoms 
and  not  ripe  fruit  also ! 

Dr.  Talmage   has   some    pungent   but  judicious 


^'- Feed  my  Lambs'''  6"/ 

words    on    ^<'iis   subject    that   it   may  be    useful   to 
quote :  — 

'*  We  expect  too  much  of  our  children  when  they 
become  Christians.  Do  not  let  us  measure  their 
quahfications  by  our  busheL  We  ought  not  to  look 
for  a  gravity  and  deep  appreciation  of  eternal  things, 
such  as  we  find  in  grown  persons.  We  have  seen 
old  sheep  in  the  pasture-field  look  anxious  and 
troubled  because  the  lambs  would  frisk.  No  doubt 
the  children  that  were  hfted  by  their  mothers  into 
Christ's  arms  and  got  his  blessing,  five  minutes  after 
he  set  them  down,  were  as  full  of  romp  as  before 
they  came  to  him.  The  boy  that,  because  he  has 
become  a  Christian,  is  disgusted  with  ball-playing; 
the  little  girl  who,  because  she  has  given  her  heart 
to  God,  has  lost  her  interest  in  her  waxen  doll,  is 
morbid  and  unhealthy.  You  ought  not  to  set 
the  life  of  a  vivacious  child  to  the  tune  of  '  Old 
Hundred.'  " 

The  injustice  of  these  unnatural  views  of  what 
is  proper  in  religious  children  w^orks  a  positive 
damage.  Many  children  break  down  utterly  under 
this  man-imposed  yoke  and  burden  that  is  neither 
easy  nor  light.  In  many  cases  they  never  recover 
from  the  misconceptions  of  religion,  and  prejudices 
against  it,  that  were  burned  into  them  by  hardness 
and  ignorance.  Besides,  this  demand  for  unnatural 
sedateness  tends  to  culbVate  affectation  in  children. 
They   cannot   be   what   is   required  of  them — old 


6S  Our  Children. 

men  and  women — and  the  persecuted  children  have 
nothing  else  left  them  that  they  can  do  but  to  act 
a  part.  No  doubt,  under  such  influences,  they  fre- 
quently mature  into  hypocrites. 

We  not  only  make  unreasonable  and  unnatural 
demands  of  children  professing  religion,  but  we 
often  judge  their  infirmities  and  failures  with  need- 
less severity.  For  instance,  a  child  recently  admit- 
ted into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church  does  wrong  in 
some  case.  Very  soon  some  sanctimonious  wise- 
acre says :  ''  I  told  you  so — it  was  all  excitement — 
that  boy  never  was  converted  any  way." 

Now  and  then  two  hot-blooded  little  boys  have  a 
fight  over  their  tops  and  their  marbles.  Doubtless, 
it  is  very  wrong  for  the  boys  to  fall  out  and  then 
fall  to  blows.  They  should  be  taught  the  better 
way  of  settling  disputes,  or  rather  of  keeping  out 
of  them  altogether.  They  should,  by  all  means,  be 
taught  the  Divine  and  only  true  method — "  over- 
coming evil  with  good."  But  shall  we  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  these  boys  were  never  converted,  or 
that  they  have  fallen  from  grace  altogether?  God 
forbid !  Such  uncharitableness  is  worse  sin  than 
the  fighting.  No  doubt,  many  little  Christians  who 
have  tripped  and  stumbled  in  the  way  have  been 
kept  down  forever  because  seme  heavy  heel  has 
been  planted  right  upon  their  hearts,  grinding  them 
into  dust.  Bethlehem  of  Judea  is  not  the  only 
place  where  there  has  been  sad  "slaughter  of  the 


^^ Feed  my  La,ftbsy  69 

innocents,"  nor  Ramah  the  only  scene  of  sorrow 
where,  as  the  end  of  uncharitableness  and  mis- 
judging, there  has  been  ''  a  voice  heard,  lamenta- 
tion, and  weeping,  and  great  mourning,  Rachel 
weeping  for  her  children,  and  would  not  be  com- 
forted because  they  are  not."  Verily,  there  are 
crueller  swords  than  Herod's. 

But  if  we  would  see  clearly  how  cruel  and  unjust 
such  judgments  pronounced  upon  child-Christians 
are,  let  us  apply  them  to  the  judges  themselves. 
We  may  challenge  them  in  the  language  of  St. 
Paul :  "  Thou  therefore  which  teachest  another, 
teachest  thou  not  thyself?  thou  that  preachest  a 
man  should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal  ?  Thou  that 
makest  thy  boast  of  the  law,  through  breaking  the 
law  dishonorest  thou  God?" 

Only  think  of  the  consistency  of  those  who  ques- 
tion the  sincerity  of  the  little  boys  because  they 
fell  to  blows,  when  they  themselves  are  often  in- 
dulging sinful  tempers,  restrained,  it  may  be,  only 
by  personal  cowardice  or  the  fear  of  public  opinion. 
Sometimes,  the  grown-up  censors  of  childish  morals 
vent  their  rage  in  hard  words  instead  of  hard  licks, 
or,  what  is  worse,  in  mean  and  slanderous  tale-bear- 
ing and  backbiting.  We  do  not  defend  the  boys 
who  fight,  but  it  would  be  an  easier  task  than  to 
defend  parents  who  grumble,  and  whine,  and  quar- 
rel, and  fret,  and  sulk  hatefully  at  each  other.  A 
sorry  sight  it  is  to  see  a  church  member  pass  loftily 


70  Our  Children. 

by  a  brother  without  speaking,  and  then  stop  to 
lecture  a  child  on  his  inconsistency  in  the  matter  of 
yesterday's  fisticuff  with  the  little  boy  he  is  playing 
with  and  would  fight  for,  if  need  be,  to-day.  The 
boys  "  made  it  up "  before  night,  but  upon  the 
wrath  of  these  two  old  people  who  have  fallen  out 
about  a  trifle  many  suns  have  risen  and  set.  They 
have  had  the  pastor  in  hot  water  over  their  case  for 
a  year,  and  have  thrown  at  least  two  committees 
into  despair,  after  vain  efforts  to  bring  them  to- 
gether. Besides,  they  have  well-nigh  destroyed  the 
Church  to  which  they  belong,  and  to  which  they 
owe  all  they  are. 

There  is  a  story  of  Dr.  Talmage,  whose  words  we 
quoted  before,  and  a  lady,  one  of  his  flock,  that  is 
good  enough  to  be  true,  and  that  makes  its  own 
application,  even  though  it  be  apocryphal. 

It  seems  that  the  lady  had  a  little  daughter,  about 
twelve  years  of  age,  who  was  also  a  member  of 
Talmage's  Church  in  Brooklyn.  One  day,  so  the 
story  goes,  little  Mary,  as  we  may  call  her,  was 
tempted,  and,  alas !  she  fell.  She  told  a  falsehood. 
Her  mother,  whose  conscience  it  seems  was  a  little 
morbid  and  also  a  little  forgetful,  was,  very  proper- 
ly, distressed,  but  she  came  to  a  very  unwise  con- 
clusion. The  sad  mother— and  parents  do  well  to  be 
sad  when  their  children  tell  falsehoods — concluded 
that  Mary's  religion  was  all  gone,  albeit  the  child 
was  full  of  penitential  sorrow.     She  even  doubted 


**  Feed  my  Lambs''  yi 

whether  the  child  ever  had  any  reh'gion  at  all. 
And  then  she  thought  of  the  Church,  and  concluded 
that  it  would  be  disgraced — as  if  one  of  the  chief 
duties  of  the  Church  in  this  world  were  not  to  ^'  re- 
store," and  "  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,"  such  as  are 
"  overtaken  in  a  fault."  So  the  good  and  sorrowful 
mother,  quite  unnecessarily,  as  it  seems  to  us,  went 
to  see  Brother  Talmage  about  the  matter.  Telling 
him  the  whole  story,  she  proposed,  to  save  the 
Church  from  dishonor,  that  Mary's  name  should  be 
taken  from  the  register.  With  some  people  disci- 
pline is  synonymous  with  expulsion.  The  good 
sister,  as  it  appears,  was  one  of  this  class.  It  is  said 
that  Talmage's  methods  are  sometimes  a  little  di- 
rect. This  time,  at  least,  the  treatment  was  quite 
heroic. 

"  Sister,"  said  the  pastor,  *'  how  long  have  you 
been  in  the  Church?" 

'^  Seventeen  years.  Brother  Talmage." 

"  How  many  lies  have  you  told  in  that  time — tell- 
ing people  you  were  glad  to  see  them  when  you 
were  sorry— that  you  were  '  not  at  home '  when  you 
were,  and  such  like  things?" 

Mary's  name  was  not  taken  off  the  Church  book. 

Our  mistakes  and  prejudices  have,  no  doubt, 
greatly  hindered  the  growth  of  grace  in  our  chil- 
dren, as  well  as  largely  curtailed  our  power  to  do 
them  good.  What  would  we  think  of  a  nurseryman 
who  would  take  the  most  delicate  tropical  plant  out 


•ji  Our  Children 

of  his  hot-house,  and  ''leave  it  out"  all  night,  on 
the  north  side  of  the  house,  with  the  thermometer 
at  zero?  What  blighting,  killing  frosts  have  fallen 
upon  more  precious  flowers  than  any  that  are 
brought  from  over  the  sea  by  our  coldness,  and 
hardness,  and  unreasonableness,  and  want  of  sym- 
pathy, and  unbelief! 

Most  of  us  have  many  misconceptions  on  this 
whole  subject.  We  demand  knowledge  and  power 
of  expression  that  God  does  not  demand  ;  we  fail 
to  see  how  perfectly  adapted  to  the  mind  of  a  child 
are  the  truths  of  the  Gospel ;  we  do  not  estimate 
aright  the  influences  and  instructions  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  we  require  too  much,  as  well  as  unnatural 
things,  of  our  children. 

Our  conclusion  is  this:  a  child  is  susceptible  of 
religious  influences  from  the  beginning  of  its  life; 
it  is  capable  of  religion  as  soon  as  it  is  capable  of 
sinning ;  it  can  learn  religious  truth  earlier  and  easi- 
er than  it  can  learn  any  other  form  of  truth. 

Now  what  are  the  facts  as  to  children  who  profess 
religion  and  join  the  Church  ?  Some  of  them  fall 
away,  most  probably  through  the  negligence  or  un- 
kindness  of  others ;  the  majority  grow  up  into  Chris- 
tian men  and  women.  Take  them  altogether,  the 
children  of  the  Church  are  as  consistent  and  stead- 
fast as  are  those  who  profess  religion  after  they 
have  grown  to  be  hardened  sinners.  For  our  part, 
we  had  much  rather  risk  the  children.     The   "rul}' 


*■' Feed  my  Lambs.''  73 

great  preacher  and  pastor,  Spurgeon,  a  few  years 
ago,  made  the  following  statement :  "  I  have  during 
the  past  year  received  forty  or  fifty  children  into 
Church  membership.  Among  those  I  have  had  at 
any  time  to  exclude  from  church-fellowship,  out  of 
a  Church  of  twenty-seven  hundred  members,  I  have 
never  had  to  exclude  a  single  one  who  was  received 
while  yet  a  child." 

Any  Church  will  show,  if  a  test  is  made,  that  the 
great  majority  of  its  very  best  people  were  brought 
to  Christ  while  yet  they  were  children. 

The  Rev.  Eugene  R.  Hendrix,  of  Missouri,  in  an 
article  published  in  the  ''  Sunday-School  Magazine" 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  1871, 
made  the  following  statements  and  reflections,  that 
are  amply  borne  out  by  the  observations  of  other 
pastors,  and  the  history  of  the  great  and  good  men 
whose  names  he  mentions.  Mr.  Hendrix  says:  "  In 
an  informal  meeting  of  seventy-six  ministers,  where 
the  writer  was  present,  it  was  found  that  forty-two 
of  them  were  converted  under  sixteen,  twenty  under 
fourteen,  and  only  seven  after  they  were  twenty- 
one. 

'*  Wilbur  Fisk  and  Jonathan  Edwards  weie  but 
eight  years  of  age  when  they  were  converted.  Bish- 
op Asbury  was  but  thirteen.  Bishop  Roberts  was 
ten.  Joseph  Benson  was  sixteen,  while  Richard  Bax- 
ter and  our  lamented  Bishop  Andrew,  like  vSamuel, 
John  the  Baptist,  and  Timothy,  were  so  taught  to 


74  Our  Cif.ldren. 

love  God  and  put  implicit  faith  in  his  promises,  that 
they  never  knew  the  time  when  first  his  service  be- 
came their  supreme  delight.  Baxter  discovered,  as 
the  explanation  of  his  experience,  that  '  Education 
is  as  properly  a  means  of  grace  as  preaching.*  Our 
preachers,  whose  names  are  household  words,  be- 
gan while  mere  '  boys '  to  proclaim  the  Gospel. 
Such  w^ere  Jesse  Lee,  an'd  Hedding,  and  Bascom, 
and  Capers,  and  Reddick  Pierce;  and  such  are 
Durbin,  Foster,  and  Lovick  Pierce.  The  list  might 
be  greatly  increased  by  the  names  of  the  honored 
living  and  of  the  lamented  dead." 

Doubtless  we  have  much  to  learn  as  to  the  right 
treatment  and  nurture  of  our  children  who  profess 
Christ  and  enter  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
O  that  we  were  wise,  that  we  were  full  of  the  ''  mind 
that  was  in  Christ" — that  we  might  know  how  to 
feed  and  care  for  his  tender  lambs !  There  is  no 
higher  duty,  there  can  be  no  holier  work  or  more 
sacred  trust  than  this.  Let  us  go  to  the  Sea  of 
Galilee,  in  the  gray  dawn  of  that  morning  when 
the  risen  Jesus  talked  with  the  now  penitent  and 
pardoned  apostle.  ''  So  when  they  had  dined,  Jesus 
saith  to  Simon  Peter,  Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest 
thou  me  more  than  these?  He  saith  unto  him.  Yea. 
Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee.  He  saith 
unto  him.  Feed  my  lambs." 

Let  us  learn  this  lesson  well,  and  pray  for  grace 
to  imitate  the  example  of  the  good  Shepherd,  who 


'^  Feed  my  Lambs ^  75 

"gathers  the  lambs  with  his  arms,  and  carries  them 
fn  his  bosom." 

We  have  long  believed  that  the  Churches  are  in 
nothing  so  deficient  as  in  their  care  of  young  chil- 
dren who  are  brought  to  Christ.  Too  often  they  are 
left  to  themselves.  Too  often  they  are  only  baptized 
and  registered  and  turned  loose,  as  a  careless  shep- 
herd does  his  lambs — marks  them,  and  then  turns 
them  out  to  "pick  up"  a  living  in  the  woods  and  on 
the  commons  as  best  they  can,  meanwhile  dodging 
robbers,  dogs,  and  wolves  as  they  may  be  able ! 

Blessed  be  God !  despite  our  blind  and  sinful 
negligence,  many  of  our  little  children  are  soundly 
converted  to  Christ  by  the  Spirit,  many  of  them 
stay  converted,  grow  in  grace,  and,  at  last,  forever 
escape  the  ravening  wolf  that  prowls  about  the  fold, 
and  dares  sometimes  to  enter  its  gates  that  he  may 
bear  away  the  tender  lambs  ! 

There  is  a  common  notion — may  be,  though  we 
do  not  know,  only  a  superstition — that  angels  stand 
guard  over  little  babies  to  shield  them  from  many 
hard  knocks  and  falls  that,  but  for  the  support  of 
angehc  hands  and  the  shelter  of  angelic  wings,  would 
prove  fatal  to  the  helpless  ones.  No  wonder  that 
many  fond  mothers  believe  that  invisible  guards 
keep  watch  around  the  cradles  in  which  their  dar- 
lings sleep.  No  doubt  a  good  Providence  keeps  ward 
and  watch  over  the  little  babes,  although  our  Father 
may  not  call  in  the  angels,  strong  and  good  as  they 


^6  Our  Children. 

are,  to  do  this  holy  work.  And  it  does  seem  to  us 
that  Heaven  has  Httle  children  who  profess  Christ 
in  most  tender  and  loving  care.  And  if  there  is 
any  difference,  there  is  more  anxious  watch  and 
tender  painstaking  when  Satan  has  them  at  some 
disadvantage,  just  as  mothers  are  most  watchful  and 
loving  when  trouble  comes  upon  their  children,  or 
sickness  takes  the  bloom  from  their  rosy  cheeks. 
How  often  have  we  outwatched  the  stars  with  the 
delicate  mother,  who  seemed  never  to  grow  weary 
while  there  was  hope  that  death  might  be  turned 
away  from  our  little  ones !  Not  more  tenderly,  we 
are  sure,  did  Jesus  rest  his  hands  on  the  heads  of 
the  infants  that  the  Jewish  mothers  brought  for  his 
blessing,  than  he  cares  for  and  blesses  his  youthful 
disciples,  who  are  so  truly  ''  babes  in  Christ."  "  He 
who  keepeth  Israel  neither  slumbereth  nor  sleep- 
eth,"  and  he  is  the  Keeper  of  the  little  children  that 
come  to  him. 

O  that  the  Church  were  indeed  a  *'  nursing 
mother"  to  ''  babes  in  Christ !  "  How  shall  we  ever 
learn  this  holy  duty  till  we  get  closer  to  Jesus — till 
we  have  more  of  his  Spirit — till  we  love  the  lambs 
of  the  fold,  according  to  our  power  to  love,  even  as 
he  himself  loved  them  ? 

What  priceless  blessings  the  right  care  and  nur- 
ture of  believing  children  would  bring  to  us  who 
are  older,  and  who,  for  that  very  reason,  need  the 
simplicity  and  unquestioning  trust  of  children,  to 


'•''Feed  my  Lambs y  77 

maintain  within  our  breasts  the  true  spirit  of  a  child 
in  Christ  Jesus ! 

Would  God  that  in  every  true  and  holy  sense  the 
last  prophecy  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  were 
fulfilled  in  us — that  God  would  '*  turn  the  heart  of 
the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart  of  the 
children  to  the  fathers  ! " 


78  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  FAMILY— ITS  BASIS  IN  MARRIAGE. 

GOD,  in  the  beginning,  established  the  family. 
Patriarchy  is  the  only  divinely  established  y<?r/;/ 
of  government  known  to  men.  For  while,  as  to 
civil  government,  it  is  true  that  "the  powers  that 
be  are  ordained  of  God,"  it  is  also  true  that  the 
form  of  government  is  left  to  the  determination  of 
the  governed.  Neither  monarchies,  nor  empires,  nor 
republics,  nor  any  other  particular  forms  of  govern- 
ment, are  divinely  appointed.  But  the  family  God 
has  ordained  ;  as  Robert  Hall  has  well  expressed  it : 
''  The  union  of  mankind  in  families  is  ascribed  to 
God,  and  is  a  distinguished  mark  of  his  loving-kind- 
ness. '  He  setteth  the  solitary  in  families,'  '  He 
maketh  the  barren  woman  to  keep  house,  and  to  be 
a  joyful  mother  of  children.'  The  ties  of  domestic 
society  are  of  his  forming:  the  birth  and  preserva- 
tion of  children  are  eminent  instances  of  his  favor 
and  beneficence.  It  is  surely  incumbent  on  fami- 
lies, then,  to  acknowledge  him  in  their  domestic 
relation." 

*'  The  basis  of  the  Christian  family,"  says  a  writer 
in  M'Clintock  and  Strong's  *' Cyclopaedia,"  ''is 
Christian    marriage,    or   monogamy,   the   exclusive 


The  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage.  79 

anion  of  one  man  to  one  woman.  The  deepest 
ground  of  this  union,  and  its  true  aim,  without 
which  Christian  marriage  and  family  are  impossible, 
is  the  consciousness  of  union  in  Christ,  or  in  the  love 
of  God  in  Christ,  the  source  of  individual  sympathy 
as  veil  as  of  brotherly  and  universal  love.  Mar- 
riage has,  in  common  with  Christian  friendship,  the 
bond  of  tender  sentiments;  but  the  former  is  an  ex- 
clusive bond  between  two  persons  of  different  sexes, 
whose  personality  is  cotnplenicntcd^  so  to  speak,  by 
each  other.  It  is,  therefore,  a  life-long  relation, 
while  friendship  may  be  only  temporary. 

"  Two  persons  thus  joined  in  marriage  lay  the 
foundation  of  a  Christian  family  ;  indeed,  they  con- 
stitute a  family,  though  yet  incomplete  and  unde- 
veloped. It  awaits  its  completion  in  the  birth  of 
children.  In  proportion,  however,  as  the  married 
couple  live  in  a  state  of  holiness,  so  are  the  natural 
desires  for  issue  and  their  gratification  made  sub- 
servient to  the  divinely  ordered  end  of  marriage, 
and  accompanied  by  a  sense  of  dependence  on  the 
blessing  and  will  of  God." 

"  Marriage,"  says  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  in  his  "  Sys- 
tematic Theology,"  is  a  divine  institution.  It  is 
founded  on  the  nature  of  man  as  constituted  by 
God.  He  made  man  male  and  female,  and  ordained 
marriage  as  the  indispensable  condition  of  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  race.  Marriage  was  instituted  be- 
fore the  existence  of  civil  society,  and,  therefore, 


8o  Our  Children 

cannot   in   its  essential   nature    be   a  civil    institu 
tion." 

The  perfection  of  Patriarchy,  as  a  form  of  govern- 
ment, grows  out  of  the  peculiar  relation  of  husband 
and  wife.  When  Eve  was  brought  to  Adam  he 
said — and  doubtless  under  divine  prompting :  ''  This 
is  now  bone  of  my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  :  she 
shall  be  called  Woman  because  she  was  taken  out  of 
man.  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife  :  and  they 
shall  be  one  flesh." 

In  showing  the  wickedness  of  the  "  traditions  of 
the  elders  "  on  the  subject  of  easy  divorce,  our  Lord 
sets  forth  the  same  doctrine  of  the  unity  and  indis- 
solubleness  of  Christian  marriage.  He  said  :  "  But 
from  the  beginning  of  the  creation  God  made  them 
male  and  female.  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave 
his  father  and  mother,  and  cleave  to  his  wife ;  and 
they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh  :  so  that  they  are  no 
more  twain  but  one  flesh.  Wherefore  what  God 
hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder." 

It  is  such  a  union  as  to  produce,  in  some  sense, 
identity. 

'*  God,"  says  Wuttke,  in  his  "  Christian  Ethics,' 
"  in  his  primitive  institution  of  marriage,  that  is,  by 
his  creative  will,  established  the  essence  of  marriage 
to  consist  in  the  fact  that  the  two  consorts  should 
be  one  flesh,  one  single  absolutely  inseparable  life, 
as  to  soul  and  body,  even  as  every  living  body  is  a 


TJlc  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage.  8 1 

single  inseparable  whole,  and  any  dissevering  of  it 
the  death  of  the  same." 

The  entire  oneness  of  the  married  pair  and  their 
complete  community  of  interest  —  particularly  in 
their  children — is  therefore  the  basis  and  the  con- 
dition of  the  perfect  administration  of  this  divinely 
instituted  and  most  perfect  of  all  possible  forms  of 
human  government.  The  wedding  and  the  Sab- 
bath are  the  two  hallowed  institutions  which  come 
down  to  us  from  the  primeval  innocence  of  our  race. 
Among  the  earliest  records  of  the  human  race  is  the 
sacred  history  of  the  divine  institution  of  marriage  : 

''  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him  ;  male  and  female  cre- 
ated he  them.  And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said 
unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish 
the  earth,  and  subdue  it."  As  truly  as  beautifully 
does  the  marriage  service  set  forth  the  dignity  and 
sacredness  of  this  relation  when  it  is  declared  to  be 
"  an  honorable  estate,  instituted  of  God  in  the  time 
of  man's  innocency,  signifying  uHto  us  the  mystical 
union  that  is  betv/een  Christ  and  his  Church  ;  which 
holy  estate  Christ  adorned  and  beautified  with  his 
presence,  and  first  miracle  that  he  wrought,  in  Cana 
of  Galilee,  and  is  commended  by  St.  Paul  to  be  hon- 
orable among  all  men."  How  wise  the  caution  that 
follows  :  ''  And  therefore  is  not  by  any  to  be  entered 
into  unadvisedly,  but  reverently,  discreetly,  advised- 
ly, and  in  the  fear  of  God." 


82  Our  Children. 

We  cannot  exaggerate  the  importance  to  society 
and  to  the  Church  of  entertaining  sound  and  script- 
ural views  of  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  for  the  more 
nearly  we  realize  the  divine  idea  of  marriage  the 
more  nearly  will  we  approach  to  the  Edenic  purity 
and  happiness  of  the  human  race.  The  excel- 
lence of  the  following  quotation  from  Dr.  Hodge's 
"Systematic  Theology"  will  more  than  excuse  its 
length : — 

"  The  strongest  proof  of  the  sanctity  of  the  mar- 
riage relation  in  the  sight  of  God  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  both  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New  Tes- 
taments, it  is  made  the  symbol  of  the  relation  be- 
tween God  and  his  people.  'Thy  Maker  is  thy  hus- 
band,' are  the  words  of  God,  and  contain  a  world  of 
truth,  of  grace,  and  of  love.  The  departure  of  the 
people  from  God  is  illustrated  by  a  reference  to  a 
wife  forsaking  her  husband ;  while  God's  forbearance, 
tenderness,  and  love,  are  compared  to  those  of  a 
faithful  husband  to  his  wife.  *  As  the  bridegroom 
rejoiceth  over  the  jpride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice  over 
thee  !  (Isa.  Ixii,  5.)  In  the  New  Testament,  this 
reference  to  the  marriage  relation,  to  illustrate  the 
union  between  Christ  and  the  Church,  is  frequent 
and  instructive.  The  Church  is  called  'the  bride, 
the  Lamb's  wife.'  (Rev.  xxi,  9.)  And  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  work  of  salvation  is  set  forth  as  the  mar- 
riage supper  of  the  Lamb.  (Rev.  xix,  7,  9.)  In 
Ephesians  v,  22-25,  the   union   between   husbands 


The  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage.  83 

and  wives,*"  and  the  duties  thence  resulting,  are  set 
forth  as  so  analogous  to  the  union  between  Christ 
and  his  Church,  that  in  some  cases  it  is  hard  to  de- 
termine to  which  union  the  language  of  the  apostle 
is  to  be  applied.  .  .  . 

"  The  analogy  which  the  apostle  traces  out  in 
Ephesians  v,  22-33,  between  the  conjugal  relation 
and  the  union  between  Christ  and  his  Church,  brings 
out  the  scriptural  doctrines  of  marriage  more  clear- 
ly than,  perhaps,  any  other  passage  in  the  Bible.  No 
analogy  is  expected  to  answer  in  all  respects,  and  no 
illustration,  borrowed  from  earthly  relations,  can 
bring  out  the  fullness  of  the  things  of  God.  The  re- 
lation, therefore,  between  a  husband  and  his  wife,  is 
only  an  adumbration  of  the  relation  of  Christ  to  his 
Church.  Still  there  is  an  analogy  between  the  two. 
(i.)  As  the  apostle  teaches,  the  love  of  Christ  to  his 
Church  is  peculiar  and  exclusive.  It  is  such  as  he 
has  for  no  other  class  or  body  of  creatures  in  the 
universe.  So  the  love  of  the  husband  for  his  wife 
is  particular  and  exclusive.  It  is  such  as  he  has  for 
no  other  object ;  a  love  in  which  no  one  can  partici- 
pate. (2.)  Christ's  love  for  his  Church  is  self-sacri- 
ficing.    He  gave  himself  for  it,  he  purchased  it  with 

♦"Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your  own  husbandb.as  unto  the 
Loid.  For  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the 
head  of  the  Church  :  and  he  is  the  Saviour  of  the  body.  Therefore 
as  the  Church  is  subject  unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  own 
husbands  in  every  thing.  Husbands,  love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ 
also  loved  the  Church,  and  gave  himself  for  it." 


84  Our  Children. 

his  blood.  So  the  husband  should,  and  when  true, 
does,  in  all  things  sacrifice  himself  for  his  wife. 
(3.)  Christ  and  his  Church  are  one;  one  in  the  sense 
that  the  Church  is  his  body.  So  the  husband  and 
Avife  are  in  such  a  sense  one,  that  a  man  in  loving 
his  wife  loves  himself.  (4.)  Christ's  life  is  communi- 
cated to  the  Church.  As  the  life  of  the  head  is 
communicated  to  the  members,  and  the  life  of  the 
vine  to  the  branches,  so  there  is,  in  a  mysterious 
sense,  a  community  of  life  between  Christ  and  his 
Church.  In  like  manner,  in  a  sense  no  less  truly 
mysterious,  there  is  a  community  of  life  between 
husband  and  wife. 

"  From  all  this  it  follows  that  as  it  would  be  ut- 
terly incongruous  and  impossible  that  Christ  should 
have  two  bodies,  two  brides,  two  Churches,  so  it  is 
no  less  incongruous  and  impossible  that  a  man  should 
have  two  wives.  That  is,  the  conjugal  relation,  as 
it  is  set  forth  in  Scripture,  cannot  by  possibility  sub- 
sist except  between  one  man  and  one  woman." 

If  we  have  right  views  of  the  divine  institution  of 
marriage  and  of  its  nature  and  sanctity,  we  will 
readily  conclude  that  in  the  word  of  God — and  not 
elsewhere — we  are  to  find  the  laws  and  principles 
that  should  regulate  our  conduct  in  relation  to  it. 

We  prefer,  at  this  point,  to  borrow  the  wise  words 
of  learned  and  eminent  Christian  writers.  In  con- 
sidering the  principles  that  should  determine  men 
and  women   in  entering  into  this  sacred   relation, 


Tlir  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage.  85 

Wuttke  employs  the  following  language :  "  The 
contracting  of  marriage  is  neither  a  mere  business 
transaction,  nor  a  fruit  of  a  simple  falling  in  love ; 
where  moral  love  does  not  form  the  marriage, 
there  it  is  desecrated.  Hence  marriages  cannot 
be  planned  and  brought  about  simply  by  parents 
no  more  than  can  the  parents  practice  virtue  for 
their  children ;  the  moral  must  be  accomplished 
by  each  for  himself.  The  free  personal  choice,  that 
is  absolutely  necessary  to  marriage  proper,  is  not 
to  be  made  arbitrarily  or  by  hap-hazard  ;  it  aims 
essentially  at  the  realization  of  the  complete  life- 
unity  of  the  two  persons,  to  the  end  of  moral  com- 
munion." 

It  is  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  relation,  as  well 
as  the  many  and  great  blessings  which  its  divine 
Author  designed  it  to  secure  to  mankind,  that  makes 
all  merely  selfish  or  sensual,  and  therefore  unmoral, 
marriage  an  unspeakable  shame  and  sin. 

Dr.  Timothy  Dwight  has  some  admirable  obser- 
vations on  this  subject.  He  says  ;  "  The  propensi- 
ties, inwrought  into  our  nature  as  a  law,  and  the 
declarations  of  Scripture,  teach  us  alike,  and  irre- 
sistibly, that  this  union  is  to  be  formed  only  on  the 
ground  of  affection,  regulated  by  prudence.  On 
this  plan,  and  on  this  only,  can  marriage  be  reason- 
ably expected  to  be  happy.  We  are  not,  therefore, 
to  wonder,  that  persons  who  marry  for  the  purpose 
of  allying  themselves  with  families  of  distinction  ; 


S6  Our  Children. 

acquiring  or  repairing  fortunes ;  obtaining  rank,  or 
gratifying  in  any  manner  ambition,  avarice,  or  sen- 
suality; should  afterward  find  themselves  unhappy. 
These  persons  do  not,  intentionally,  marry  either 
husbands  or  wives.  They  marry  distinction,  for- 
tunes, titles,  villas,  luxury,  and  grandeur.  The  ob- 
jects to  which  they  intentionally  unite  themselves 
they  acquire.  It  cannot  be  wondered  at  that  they 
do  not  gain  those  which  they  never  sought ;  nor 
that  they  do  not  find  the  blessings  of  marriage,  fol- 
lowing plans  and  actions,  which,  unless  incidentally, 
have  no  relation  to  marriage.  These  persons,  it  is 
true,  find  the  objects,  to  which  they  are  really  wed- 
ded, incumbered  by  beings,  who  stand  in  the  places 
of  husbands  and  wives.  Still,  they  cannot  form  even 
a  pretense  for  complaining;  since,  with  their  eyes 
open,  they  voluntarily  subject  themselves,  for  the 
sake  of  such  gratifications,  to  all  the  evils  arising  out 
of  the  incumbrance.  The  person  who  wishes  to  ob- 
tain the  blessings,  designed  by  this  or  any  other  in- 
stitution of  God,  must  intentionally  conform  to  the 
nature  and  spirit  of  the  institution  itself,  and  to  all 
the  precepts  concerning  it,  by  which  he  has  mani- 
fested his  own  pleasure." 

We  may  offer  a  few  observations  here  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  indissolubleness  of  marriage,  except  by 
death  and  the  one  other  cause  allowed  by  the  plain 
teaching  of  our  Saviour — Infidelity  to  the  marriage 
vow.     The  essential  oneness  of  the  husband   and 


TJic  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage.  87 

wife  constitutes  the  reason  why  infidehty  to  the 
marriage  vow  must  work  its  dissolution.  An  emi- 
ncnt  writer  —  whose  name  escapes  us  —  has  said 
**  The  reason  of  this  is,  the  parties  are  no  longer 
one,  in  the  mysterious  sense  in  which  the  Bible  de- 
clares a  man  and  his  wife  to  be  one." 

On  this  whole  subject  there  is  no  safety  outside 
of  the  word  of  God.  Marriage  is  an  institution  of 
God,  and  no  laws — ecclesiastical  or  civil — that  con- 
travene the  divine  law  in  relation  to  it  can  be, 
for  a  moment,  for  any  consideration  whatsoever,  ap- 
proved or  obeyed  by  those  who  profess  to  regulate 
their  opinion  and  their  conduct  by  the  word  of  the 
Lord.  We  quote  again  from  Dr.  Hodge's  admirable 
remarks  on  this  subject : — 

"  The  passages  in  the  Gospel  referring  to  this 
subject  are  Matthew  v,  31,  32;  xix,  3-9;  Mark  x, 
2-12;  and  Luke  xvi,  18.  The  simple  meaning  of 
these  passages  seems  to  be,  that  marriage  is  a  per- 
manent compact,  which  cannot  be  dissolved  at  the 
will  of  either  of  the  parties.  If,  therefore,  a  man 
arbitrarily  puts  away  his  wife  and  marries  another, 
he  commits  adultery.  If  he  repudiates  her  on  just 
grourds  and  marries  another,  he  commits  no  offense. 
Our  Lord  makes  the  guilt  of  marrying  after  separa- 
tion to  depend  on  the  ground  of  the  separation. 
Saying,  *  that  if  a  man  puts  away  his  wife  for  any 
cause  save  fornication,  and  marries  another,  he  com- 
mits adultery;'  is  saying  that  'the  offense  is  not 


88  Our  Children. 

committed  if  the  specified  ground  of  divorce  exists.' 
And  this  is  saying  that  divorce,  when  justifiable,  dis- 
solves the  marriage  tie.  .  .  . 

''  It  cannot  be  dissolved  by  any  voluntary  act  of 
repudiation  by  the  contracting  parties,  nor  by  any 
act  of  the  Church  or  State.  '  Those  whom  God  hath 
joined  together  no  man  can  put  asunder.'  The 
compact  may,  however,  be  dissolved,  although  by  no 
legitimate  act  of  man.  It  is  dissolved  by  death.  It 
is  dissolved  by  adultery;  and,  as  Protestants  teach, 
by  wil'lful  desertion.  In  other  words,  there  are  cer- 
tain things  which  from  their  nature  work  a  dis- 
solution of  the  marriage  bond.  All  the  legiti- 
mate authority  the  State  has  in  the  premises  is  to 
take  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  the  marriage  is 
dissolved,  officially  to  announce  it,  and  to  make 
suitable  provisions  for  the  altered  relations  of  the 
parties." 

No  human  arguments  or  theories,  however  ingen- 
ious and  plausible  ;  no  human  legislation,  by  Church 
or  State,  can  change  in  the  least  degree  the  essen- 
tial basis,  character,  or  obligations  of  the  marriage 
institution,  divinely  ordained  and  regulated.  The 
attempt  to  change  the  nature  or  to  diminish  the  ob- 
ligations of  marriage  is  treason  to  God  and  to  the 
most  sacred  interests  of  humanity.  All  those  the- 
ories that  arc  at  the  bottom  of  the  modern  divorce 
laws— which,  indeed,  alone  make  them  possible — 
multiplying  the  grounds  of  divorce  and  facilitating 


The  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage,  89 

its  procurement,  are  false,  wicked,  and  injurious  to 
the  last  degree.  Whatever  theory  of  marriage  there 
may  be  which  in  the  least  discounts  its  sanctity,  less- 
ens its  obligations,  abridges  its  responsibilities,  or 
facilitates  its  dissolution — except  as  allowed  by  the 
word  of  God — is,  indeed,  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
an  inspiration  of  Satan.  It  is  a  sort  of  sacrilege  to 
think  of  marriage  as  a  mere  partnership — terminable 
at  will,  like  any  mere  business  association.  "  Free- 
love  " — as  certain  knavish  fanatics  call  it — is  brutal- 
ity. It  is  sensual,  bestial,  devilish.  Unscriptural 
divorce  laws  indicate  retrogression  into  worse  than 
barbarism.  They  violate  nature  and  outrage  grace. 
They  foster  licentiousness,  break  down  the  family, 
destroy  the  peace,  and  debauch  the  purity  of  soci- 
ety. No  pen  can  overstate  the  ever  intensifying 
evils  which  flow  from  false  views  of  marriage,  and 
from  laws  designed  to  facilitate  its  dissolution. 
There  are,  perhaps,  no  more  alarming  symptoms  of 
increasing  social  corruption  in  our  country  than  the 
multiplication  of  divorces.  The  "  easy  divorce  " 
laws  that  prevail  in  some  States  are  first  effect  and 
then  cause.  That  they  were  enacted,  or  could  be 
enacted,  was  the  effect  and  the  proof  of  the  degen- 
eracy of  domestic  purity  and  social  virtue ;  as  soon 
as  they  became  operative  they  began  at  once  to 
make  large  contributions  to  the  aggravation  of  the 
evils  that  their  authors  pretended  they  were  de- 
signed to  hold  in  check. 


90  Our  Children. 

Dr.  Hodge  says  justly  and  forcibly:— 

**  As  all  denominations  of  Christian'^,  Romanists 
and  Protestants,  are  of  one  mind  on  this  subject,  it 
is  matter  of  astonishment  that  these  objectionable 
divorce  laws  are  allowed  to  stand  on  the  statute- 
books  of  so  many  of  our  States.  This  fact  proves 
either  that  public  attention  has  not  to  a  sufficient 
degree  been  called  to  the  subject,  or  that  the  public 
conscience  is  lamentably  blinded  or  seared.  The 
remedy  is  with  the  Church,  which  is  the  witness  of 
God  on  earth,  bound  to  testify  to  his  truth  and  to 
uphold  his  cause. 

"  If  Christians,  in  their  individual  capacity  and  In 
their  Church  courts,  would  unite  in  their  efforts  to 
arouse  and  guide  public  sentiment  on  this  subject, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  these  objectionable  laws 
would  be  repealed." 

The  following  extract  from  one  of  Dr.  Dwight's 
discourses  is  instructive  and  suggestive  at  this  point 
in  our  discussion  :  ''  In  France,  within  three  months 
after  the  law  permitting  divorces  was  enacted  by 
the  National  Assembly,  there  was  in  the  city  of 
Paris  almost  as  many  divorces  registered  as  mar- 
riages. In  the  whole  kingdom  there  were,  as  re- 
ported by  the  Abb6  Gregoire,  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  National  Assembly  on  that  subject, 
upward  of  twenty  thousand  divorces  registered  with- 
in about  a  year  and  a  half.  '  This  law,'  added  the 
abb6,  'will  soon  ruin  the  whole  nation.'  " 


The  Family — Its  Basis  in  Marriage,  91 

The  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  ;  this  and  other 
such  laws  and  doctrines— with  the  sentiments  they 
engender  and  the  practices  they  encourage — Jiave 
ruined  France. 

Cursed  be  the  hand  that  is  lifted  against  the  mar- 
riage altar! 


92  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE  FAMILY— THE  BASIS  OF  CHURCH  AND  STATE. 

THE  family  is  the  beginning  of  society  and  the 
foundation  of  government.  It  is  before  the 
Church,  or  the  State,  and  both  grow  out  of  and  de- 
pend upon  it.  This  is  not  a  human  device,  but  a 
divine  appointment.  It  is  not  an  arbitrary  arrange- 
ment, but  a  necessary  relation.  It  cannot  be  other- 
wise. It  inheres  in  the  very  constitution  under 
which  man  is  created  and  under  which  the  develop- 
ment of  the  race  must  proceed.  Both  Church  and 
State  existed  partially  and  potentially  in  the  first 
married  pair.  "  For  two  persons,"  as  Wuttke  has 
said,  "  thus  joined  in  marriage  lay  the  foundation  of 
a  Christian  family;  indeed,  they  constitute  a  family, 
though  yet  incomplete  and  undeveloped.  It  awaits 
its  completion  in  the  birth  of  children."  "  Individ 
uals,"  says  Howe,  **  are  elements  of  families  ;  families 
are  elements  of  which  both  Churches  and  kingdoms, 
or  commonwealths,  are  made  up ;  and  as  the  one  of 
these  is  purely  civil,  the  other  purely  sacred,  that 
which  is  elementary  to  both  must  be  both."  And 
Harris  says:  "  Here  we  find  ourselves  looking  in  on 
the  elements  of  all  the  forms  of  human  society." 
In  ancient  Greece  the  idea  of  the  family  was  the 


The  Family —  7 lie  Basis  of  Church  and  State.  93 

nucleus  of  society,  or  of  the  State.  Aristotle  speaks 
of  the  family  as  the  foundation  of  the  State.  ''  Par- 
ents," observes  Wuttke,  "  are  the  first  princes,  and 
true  princes  are  the  fathers  of  their  people  ;  patres — 
fathers,  was  the  title  of  distinction  of  the  Roman 
senators ;  *  elders '  is  used  in  a  like  sense  for  the 
leaders  of  moral  society  in  almost  all  the  free  con- 
stitutions of  antiquity  and  also  of  the  Church."  It 
is  Montesquieu,  we  believe,  who  says  :  "  Man  is 
born  in  society,  and  there  he  remains."  Another 
writer  remarks,  "The  family  is  a  rehearsal  for  soci- 
ety." It  should  be  also  a  rehearsal  for  the  Church. 
We  sometimes  speak,  in  a  loose  way,  of  the  Jew- 
ish and  the  Christian  Churches  as  if  they  were  two 
distinct  and  totally  different  things.  But  this  is  not 
a  correct  or  scriptural  view  of  the  subject.  Richard 
Watson  says  :  ''  The  Christian  Church  is  not  another 
Church,  but  the  very  same  that  was  before  the  com- 
ing of  Christ,  having  the  same  faith  with  it,  and  inter- 
ested in  the  same  covenant.  Great  alterations,  in- 
deed, were  made  in  the  outward  state  and  condition 
of  the  Church,  by  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  The 
carnal  privilege  of  the  Jews,  in  their  separation  from 
other  nations  to  give  birth  to  the  Messiah,  then 
failed,  and  with  that  also  their  claim  on  that  account 
t )  be  the  children  of  Abraham.  The  ordinances  of 
worship  suited  to  that  state  of  things  then  expired, 
and  came  to  an  end.  New  ordinances  of  worship 
were  appointed,  suitable  to  the  new  light  and  grace 


94  Our  Children. 

which  were  then  bestowed  upon  the  Church.  The 
Gentiles  came  into  the  faith  of  Abraham  along  with 
the  Jews,  being  made  joint  partakers  with  them  in 
his  blessings.  But  none  of  these  things,  nor  the 
whole  collectively,  did  make  such  an  alteration  in 
the  Church  but  that  it  was  still  one  and  the  same. 
The  olive-tree  was  still  the  same,  only  some  branches 
were  broken  off,  and  others  grafted  into  it.  The 
Church  is,  and  always  was,  one  and  the  same." 

And  it  has  always  been — where  it  has  been  a 
Church  at  all — a  Christian  Church ;  for  Christ  Jesus 
— ''AlpJia  and  Oviega,  the  beginning  and  the  end  " — 
was  in  the  beginning,  and  is  now  and  forever  will 
be,  the  head  and  life  of  the  Church. 

Dr.  John  Owen,  in  one  place,  remarks :  *'  Sin  hav- 
ing entered  into  the  world,  God  was  pleased  to 
found  his  Church  (the  Catholic  or  Universal  Church) 
in  the  promise  of  the  Messiah  given  to  Adam." 
Thus  Adam,  who  was  the  first  ruler,  was  also  the 
first  priest.  Both  State  and  Church  began  with  the 
first  family.  Robert  Hall  does  not  go  too  far  when 
he  says  of  the  family :  ''  This  sort  of  society  is  the  root 
and  origin  of  every  other;  and  as  it  is  the  most  an- 
cient, so  it  is  bound  together  by  ties  the  most  tender 
and  sacred.  Every  other  social  bond  in  which  men 
are  united  is  loose  and  incidental,  compared  to  that 
which  unites  the  members  of  the  same  family." 

If  we  trace  the  Bible  history  of  our  race  we  will 
find   the  same  general  views   sustained   and    illus- 


The  Family — The  Basis  of  Church  and  State.  95 

trated.  All  *'  new  departures,"  so  to  speak,  took 
their  origin  in  the  family.  In  the  second  founder 
of  the  race  we  have  a  striking  illustration ;  Noah 
was  both  prince  and  priest  of  that  household  which 
was  at  once  both  State  and  Church.  The  same 
facts  appear  in  the  history  of  Abraham  and  of  all 
the  worthy  and  believing  patriarchs.  All  the  great 
lawgivers  of  antiquity  have  had  some  conception, 
more  or  less  clear,  of  the  principle  we  are  endeavor- 
ing to  set  forth.  But  it  is  in  the  Bible  that  we  find 
the  clearest  and  most  impressive  recognition  of  the 
family  in  all  its  relations  to  the  State  and  the 
Church.  The  call  of  Abraham  and  the  covenant 
made  with  him  involve  this  general  fact.  The  new 
State  and  the  new  Church — that  is,  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  society  and  the  rehabilitation  of  the  Church 
— began  not  with  a  nation,  or  a  tribe,  but  with  the 
family  of  Abraham.  Two  out  of  the  ten  command- 
ments look  to  the  regulation  and  preservation  of  the 
family.  When  the  venerable  Joshua  dehvered  his 
farewell  exhortations  he  exclaimed,  *'  As  for  me  and 
my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord."  Very  deeply  did 
he  feel  the  sanctity  and  responsibilities  of  his  rela- 
tion to  his  family.  The  most  thorough  and  useful 
labors  of  Ezra,  as  a  reformer,  were  intended  to  pre- 
serve the  purity  of  marriage  and  the  integrity  of  the 
family  among  those  who  '^ad  returned  from  the  cap- 
tivity. 

We  cannot  overestimate  or  overstate  the  import- 


cfo  Our  Children. 

ancc  of  the  relations  sustained  by  the  family  to  all 
that  concerns  the  real  welfare  of  our  race.  What- 
ever strengthens  and  improves  the  family,  strength- 
ens and  improves  the  State.  Vv^hatever  degrades 
and  disintegrates  the  family,  destroys  the  State.  All 
history  will  sustain  the  general  view  here  presented. 
If  the  dead  civilizations  of  ancient  days  could  send 
us  witnesses,  they  would  bear  no  uncertain  testimo- 
ny. For  Rome  and  Greece,  as  well  as  Judea,  their 
true  golden  days  were  the  days  of  their  comparative 
fidelity  to  marriage  vows  and  to  family  obligations. 
The  noblest  days  of  Roman  history  were  those 
purer  times  when  a  wife,  like  the  noble  Lucretia, 
thought  it  better  to  die  than  to  be  dishonored ; 
when  chastity  was  reckoned  a  cardinal  virtue  ;  when 
sons  were  brought  up  honorably,  and  daughters  vir- 
tuously. When  divorce  became  easy,  domestic 
virtue  began  to  perish.  Then  the  family  began  to 
fall  to  pieces ;  when  the  family  fell,  all  that  was 
truly  great  and  noble  in  Rome  fell  v/ith  it.  Her- 
culaneum  and  Pompeii — now  that  they  have  been 
exhumed  from  their  long  burial  under  volcanic 
ashes — tell  us  what  the  family  had  become  at  the 
time  of  the  greatest  corruption  and  exhaustion  of 
the  Roman  State.  All  that  we  knov/  of  Assyria,  of 
Egypt,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  great  nations  of  ancient 
times,  illustrates  the  same  principle  :  with  the  degra- 
dation of  the  family  began  the  disintegration  and 
utter  downfall  of  the  nations  themselves.     The  most 


The  Faintly —  The  Basis  of  Church  and  State,    ay/ 

frightful  corruption  of  society  that  human  history- 
records — the  corruption  of  the  antediluvian  nations, 
avenged  by  the  most  terrible  punishment  that 
heaven  has  visited  upon  our  world,  the  deluge, 
sweeping  them  all  away — seems  to  have  originated 
in  a  general  breaking  down  of  the  sanctities  of  mar- 
riage and  of  the  virtues  of  the  family.  And  the 
second  father  of  his  race,  as  it  seems,  was  spared  for 
his  exceptional  purity  as  a  husband  and  a  father, 
for  it  is  said,  as  distinguishing  him  from  the  rest, 
''  Noah  was  a  just  man  and  perfect  in  his  genera- 
tions." *'  This  phrase,"  says  Murphy,  "  indicates  the 
contrast  between  Noah  and  the  men  of  his  day.  It 
is  probable,  moreover,  that  he  was  of  pure  descent, 
and  in  that  respect  also  distinguished  from  his  con- 
temporaries who  were  the  offspring  of  promiscuous 
intermarriage  between  the  godly  and  the  ungodly." 
In  the  family  are  the  rock-foundations  of  what- 
ever good  and  great  things  are  possible  to  our  race. 
In  the  family  originate  the  impulses  and  inspira- 
tions of  all  high  and  true  civilization.  When  trouble 
has  come  upon  any  nation — when  defeat  and  dis- 
aster have  swept  its  fields  and  crushed  its  industries, 
the  restoration  of  even  material  vigor  and  prosper- 
ity must  begin  with  the  industry  and  economy  of 
the  household.  Much  more  is  it  true  that  those 
who  would  reform  the  manners  or  morals  of  any 
nation  must  begin  in  the  family.     Whether  in  the 

Church  or  in  the  State,  the  fireside  is  the  reformer's 

7 


98  Our  Children. 

true  battle-ground — here  reverses  are  suffered,  here 
victories  are  won. 

We  have  many  utterly  false  and  delusive  meas- 
ures of  prosperity.  That  is  not  the  most  vigorous 
State,  the  most  prosperous  nation,  the  best  govern- 
ment, where  there  is  the  largest  population,  the 
most  splendid  cities,  the  greatest  refinement  and 
polish  of  manners,  the  largest  accumulations  of 
gold,  the  most  brilliant  achievements  in  the  arts 
and  sciences — not  unless  these  things  are  coincident 
with  domestic  purity  and  peace.  After  all,  that  is 
the  best  government  whose  influence  is  most  potent 
in  fostering  and  securing  the  greatest  number  of  in- 
dustrious, virtuous,  and  happy  families.  Indeed,  is 
there  any  possible  use  of  government  that  does  not 
promote  these  ends?  Is  not  that  government, 
whatever  it  may  be  called,  an  unspeakable  curse 
and  nuisance,  to  be  got  rid  of  and  out  of  sight,  that 
can  only  exert  an  influence  that  must  disintegrate 
and  destroy  the  family? 

And,  as  to  the  Church,  that  is  the  best  Church 
which  most  perfectly  shows  its  strong  spiritual  vi- 
tality by  fostering  religion  in  the  family.  A  Church 
that  docs  not  make  its  families  better  is  a  wretched 
failure  and  fraud.  Both  Church  and  State  have 
theii  origin  in  the  family,  and  their  chief  end  at  last 
is  the  greatest  good  of  the  family.  Their  excellence 
is  proved  and  measured  by  the  contributions  they 
bring  to  the  family  life. 


The  Family  a  School  of  Religion.  99 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  FAMILY  A  SCHOOL  OF  RELIGION. 

TRADITION — transmission  from  parent  to  child 
— is  God's  first  and  chosen  plan  for  the  perpet- 
uation and  extension  of  religion  in  the  earth.  We 
do  not,  in  saying  this,  forget  the  institution  of  a 
public,  Christian  ministry,  nor  do  we  in  anywise 
undervalue  the  office  of  a  true  preacher  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Christian  ministry  is  also 
a  Divine  institution — the  true  preacher  is  one  ''  called 
of  God."  To  those  who  hear  he  also  is  "  one  sent 
from  God."  He  who  has  no  Divine  vocation  and 
mission  may  be  many  other  things,  but  he  is  not, 
he  cannot  be,  a  true  preacher  of  Christ  Jesus. 

The  preacher's  responsibilities  are  great  and  mani- 
fold. His  opportunities  are  vast,  his  duties  difficult, 
his  office  sacred,  his  rewards  glorious.  He  is  a  man 
far  removed  from  the  low  level  of  life's  carnal  and  self- 
ish motives.  He  is  not  his  own,  but  Christ's  and  hu- 
manity's. He  must  not  seek  his  own  will  but  Christ's. 
He  should  be  able  to  say  from  his  heart  of  hearts : 
'*  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  hims'^lf,  and  no  man  dietb 
to  himself.  For  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the 
Lord  ;  and  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord . 
whether  we  live  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's.' 


100  Our  Children. 

It  is  a  very  sad  thing  when  a  Christian  minister 
fails  to  walk  worthy  of  his  high  vocation.  As  a 
falling  tree  crushes  the  humbler  shrubs  and  more 
tender  plants  that  grow  and  cling  about  it,  so  the 
apostate  preacher  when  he  falls,  falls  not  alone. 

It  is  a  humiliating  thing  to  see  a  preacher  so  con- 
duct himself  that  he  does  not  deserve  the  respect 
that  is  due  to  his  sacred  office.  It  is  an  ominous 
thing  for  any  community  or  people  when  it  be- 
comes the  custom  to  treat  God's  chosen  servants 
with  disrespect.  It  is  a  shameful  and  wicked  thing 
when  a  depraved  press  delights  in  inventing  ribald 
and  profane  jests  to  their  confusion,  or  in  publish- 
ing slanders  to  their  undoing.  High  and  holy  is 
the  place  the  watchman  holds  who  stands  on  Zion's 
walls  and  warns  the  city  of  the  enemy.  Truly  did 
Isaiah  sing :  **  How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains 
are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  tidings,  that 
publisheth  peace ;  that  bringeth  good  tidings  of 
good,  that  publisheth  salvation ;  that  saith  unto 
Zion,  Thy  God  reigneth  !  " 

Let  us  reverence  this  holy  office  as  it  becomes 
us  to  do ;  and  let  preachers  so  walk  as  to  deserve 
reverence.  But  the  father  was  a  priest  before  there 
was  a  priestly  order,  as  he  was  a  king  before  there 
was  a  nation.  Richard  Watson^s  observations  on 
this  subject  are  judicious :  "  In  ancient  times  the 
heads  of  families  were  their  priests;  of  Abraham 
the  Almighty  said,  *  I  know  him,  that  he  will  com- 


The  Family  a  School  of  Religion.  loi 

mand  his  children  and  his  household  after  him,  and 
they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice 
and  judgment ;  that  the  Lord  may  bring  upon  Abra- 
ham  that  which  he  hath  spoken  of  him.'  Nor  did 
parents  cease,  in  a  very  important  sense,  to  be  the 
priests  in  their  families,  after  the  establishment  of 
the  Levitical  priesthood.  '  David  returned '  relig- 
iously *to  bless  his  household.'  In  this  respect  no 
change  has  taken  place  under  the  Christian  dispen- 
sation. In  the  Christian  Church,  as  well  as  among 
the  Jews,  there  is  the  public  ministry;  but  the  head 
of  every  family  is  still  its  prophet  and  its  priest, 
daily  to  offer  spiritual  sacrifices.  And  from  this  we 
come  to  a  conclusion,  which  too  many  forget,  but 
which  every  wise  and  pious  person  will  carefully  re- 
member, that,  if  he  is  at  the  head  of  a  family,  he  is, 
in  fact,  a  sacred  person,  and  has  a  sacred  office." 

Yes,  that  is  it;  the  parent  is  "a  sacred  person, 
and  has  a  sacred  office."  The  father  is  generally 
named  first  as  the  responsible  head  of  the  family, 
but  the  obligations  of  parenthood  rest  equally  upon 
the  mother.  When  God  delivers  a  solemn  charge 
to  a  father  to  bring  up  his  children  ''  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  it  is  to  the  mother 
also  and  equally.  As  it  seems  to  us,  it  is  indispen- 
sable to  recognize  and  accept  as  unalterable  two 
things:  i.  The  father  is  the  representative  and  re- 
sponsible head  of  the  house.  2.  The  mother  is 
equally   responsible    for    the   duties   of   her   place. 


102  Our  Children. 

Astronomers  tell  us  of  certain  double  stars  thac  re-. 
volve  about  a  common  center,  and  in  some  way  are 
necessary  to  each  other.  So,  in  the  family  life,  there 
is  a  common  center  of  interest  and  responsibility, 
affection  and  duty ;  they  are  two,  yet  one,  and  each 
is  necessary  to  the  other.  The  parents  are  the 
common  source  of  the  life  of  their  children  ;  we  can 
no  more  think  of  a  family  government  as  perfect 
that  lacks  either  the  paternal  or  maternal  element, 
than  we  can  think  of  parenthood  itself  as  complete 
in  the  father,  or  the  mother  alone. 

The  inspired  record  says ;  "  So  God  created  man 
in  his  own  image."  This  is  the  first  statement, 
showing  that  the  first  man  is  the  essential  unit  and 
representative  of  the  race.  But  the  historian  of 
creation  does  not  complete  his  sentences  without 
adding  this  other  word :  ''  male  and  female  created 
he  them."  In  a  sense  the  woman  was  created  in  the 
man,  but  the  man  himself  was  not  perfect  till  wom- 
an— the  wife-man,  his  complement — was  formed. 
Perfection  of  humanity  is  found  in  the  union  of  the 
two ;  the  harmony  of  the  family  in  the  adjustment 
of  their  resemblances  and  their  differences.  And 
surely,  if  we  are  to  study  and  understand  aright  the 
fatherhood  of  God,  we  must  understand  the  true 
meaning  of  human  parenthood — not  mere  father- 
hood, or  mere  motherhood,  but  perfect  and  entire 
parenthood,  for  both  motherhood  and  fatherhood 
are  necessary  to  complete  the  image  of  the  Divine 


The  Family  a  School  of  Religion.  103 

fatherhood.  Whatever  is  good  and  precious  in  our 
earthly  parents — in  our  mothers  as  well  as  in  our 
fathers — is  but  a  reflection  of  the  perfections  of  Him 
of  whom  it  is  said  in  one  place,  "As  a  father  piti- 
eth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitleth  them  that  fear 
him;"  and  in  another,  "As  one  whom  his  mother 
comforteth.  so  will  I  comfort  you  ;  and  ye  shall  be 
comforted  in  Jerusalem." 

Let  it  be  insisted  on  with  all  possible  emphasis 
that  parenthood  is  fatherhood  and  motherhood.  In 
this  complicated  yet  simple  relation  the  Bible  and 
nature  alike  make  the  father  the  responsible  head, 
and  yet,  in  no  sense,  is  he  more  essential  to  the  per- 
fection of  family  life  than  the  mother.  Whatever 
duties,  therefore,  we  shall  find  enjoined  in  the  word 
of  God  upon  the  father  in  the  instruction  and  dis- 
cipline of  his  children,  these  are  the  mother's  duties 
also. 

When  Moses,  the  man  of  God,  gave  the  second 
statement  of  the  law  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy,  he  laid  down  very  broadly  and  un- 
mistakably the  duty  of  parents  as  to  the  religious 
instruction  of  their  children.  After  stating  the  ob- 
ligation to  love  the  one  God  supremely,  Moses, 
speaking  under  divine  direction,  says :  "  And  these 
words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in 
thine  heart:  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently 
unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou 
sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the 


104  Our  Children. 

way,  and  when  thou  licst  down,  and  when  thou 
risest  up." 

After  further  warnings  and  exhorl.itions  this  ad- 
ditional injunction  is  recorded:  ''And  when  thy  son 
asketh  thee  in  time  to  come,  saying.  What  mean  the 
testimonies,  and  the  statutes,  and  the  judgments, 
which  the  Lord  our  God  hath  commanded  you  ? 
Then  thou  shalt  say  unto  thy  son,  We  were  Pharaoh's 
bondmen  in  Egypt ;  and  the  Lord  brought  us  out 
of  Egypt  with  a  mighty  hand  :  and  the  Lord  showed 
signs  and  wonders,  great  and  sore,  upon  Egypt,  upon 
Pharaoh,  and  upon  all  his  household,  before  our  eyes  : 
and  he  brought  us  out  from  thence,  that  he  might 
bring  us  in,  to  give  us  the  land  which  he  sware  unto 
our  fathers.  And  the  Lord  commanded  us  to  do 
all  these  statutes,  to  fear  the  Lord  our  God,  for  our 
good  always,  that  he  might  preserve  us  alive,  as  it  is 
at  this  day.  And  it  shall  be  our  righteousness,  if  we 
observe  to  do  all  these  commandments  before  the 
Lord  our  God,  as  he  hath  commanded  us." 

''  The  priests*  lips  should  keep  knowledge,"  and 
the  people  should  "  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth," 
and  yet  it  pleased  God  to  lay  upon  parents  the  chief 
duty,  and,  at  once,  the  most  important  and  difficult 
work,  in  preserving  a  saving  knowledge  of  divine 
Providence  and  statutes  in  the  world.  They  were 
to  ''teach  diligently"  his  commandments  and  or- 
dinances; they  were  to  recite  in  the  hearing  of 
their  children  the  marvelous  providential  history  of 


The  Family  a  School  of  Religion.  105 

Israel,  and  to  impress  upon  their  young  hearts  a  sol- 
emn sense  of  their  relation  to  God  and  of  their  obli- 
gations to  love  and  to  obey  him. 

The  Seventy-eighth  Psalm  is  a  deeply  interesting 
poetic  description  of  the  leading  events  in  Jewish  his- 
tory. Its  date  and  author  are  not  definitely  known, 
but  the  preface  contains  a  very  striking  recognition 
and  statement  of  the  divine  purpose  in  laying  upon 
parents  the  responsibility  of  the  religious  education 
of  their  children.  It  sets  forth  also,  in  stirring  lan- 
guage, the  admirable  wisdom  of  the  divine  method. 
The  Psalmist  thus  introduces  his  recital  of  the  his- 
tory of  his  people  : — 

"  Give  ear,  O  my  people,  to  my  law :  incline  your 
ears  to  the  words  of  my  mouth.  ...  I  will  open  my 
mouth  in  a  parable  :  I  will  utter  dark  sayings  of  old  : 
which  we  have  heard  and  known,  and  our  fathers 
have  told  us.  We  will  not  hide  them  from  their 
children,  showing  to  the  generation  to  come  the 
praises  of  the  Lord,  and  his  strength,  and  his  won- 
derful works  that  he  hath  done.  For  he  established 
a  testimony  in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a  law  in  Israel, 
which  he  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they  should 
make  them  known  to  their  children :  that  the  gen- 
eration to  come  might  know  them,  even  the  chil- 
dren which  should  be  born  ;  who  should  arise  and 
declare  them  to  their  children  :  that  they  might  set 
their  hope  in  God,  and  not  forget  the  works  of  God, 
hut  keep  his  commandments  :  and  might  not  be  as 


io6  Our  Children. 

their  fathers,  a  stubborn  and  rebeUious  generation; 
a  generation  that  set  not  their  heart  aright,  and 
whose  spirit  was  not  steadfast  with  God." 

Words  cannot  be  plainer.  God's  deahngs  with 
his  people  were  to  be  known  by  all  the  generations 
of  Israel ;  to  secure  this  great  result  God  lays  upon 
parents  the  duty  of  telling  these  things  to  their  chil- 
dren, that  they  might  tell  it  to  their  children,  and  so 
on  and  on  to  the  last,  that  all  ''  the  generations  to 
come  might  know  them."  The  grand  purpose  of 
these  parental  instructions  is  that  *'  the  children 
which  shall  be  born  " — who,  in  turn,  were  to  "  arise 
and  declare  them  to  their  children  " — ''  may  set  their 
hope  in  God,  and  not  forget  the  works  of  God."  It 
was  not  only  designed  to  teach  them  God's  ways, 
but,  in  teaching  them  the  statutes  and  providences 
of  God,  to  save  them  from  the  blunders  and  crimes 
o:  their  fathers,  and  thus  secure  that  noblest  hope 
of  our  race — a  course  of  improvement  and  develop- 
ment from  age  to  age  ! 

''  And  might  not  be  as  their  fathers,  a  stubborn 
and  rebellious  generation." 

The  father,  the  mother,  the  parent  is  a  "  sacred 
[)erson."  By  no  possibility  can  any  other  do  the 
work  of  the  parent.  The  duty  inheres  in  the  rela- 
tion. The  responsibility  cannot  be  abridged,  or  laid 
down,  or  avoided.  The  work  of  the  parent,  in  the 
religious  education  of  his  children,  cannot  be  done 
by  proxy.     Even  if  another  could  do  it   better,  it 


TJie  Family  a  Sdiool  of  Religion.  107 

would  not  relieve  the  patent  of  his  peculiar  obliga- 
tion. The  voice  that  calls  to  this  duty  is  imperative 
—it  must  be  obeyed.  But  no  other  can  do  the  par- 
ent's work  as  well  as  the  parent  himself.  He  has 
the  true  vantage  ground  ;  no  other  created  being  can 
get  as  close  to  the  child's  heart  as  he  ought  to  be 
able  to  do.  The  parent  holds  a  mystic  key  that  no 
other  hand  can  fit  to  the  wards  of  its  locks.  If  the 
parent  does  not  do  his  work  it  is  forever  undone. 
So  left  undone,  the  parent  is  guilty  and  the  child 
wronged,  and  wronged  irreparably.  The  child,  in 
spite  of  parental  delinquency,  may,  in  the  great  mer- 
cy of  God,  be  saved  at  last ;  but,  if  he  has  failed  to 
receive  proper  parental  instruction  in  the  things  of 
God,  and  to  come  under  salutary  parental  influences 
during  the  formative  period  of  his  life,  he  has  suf- 
fered a  real  loss  that  no  blessings,  advantages,  cul- 
ture, successes  in  other  departments  and  through 
other  instrumentalities  can  ever  fully  regain. 

Truly  and  eloquently  does  Harris  in  his  "  Patri- 
archy "  say  :  ''  Well  might  the  mind  be  haunted  age 
after  age  with  a  social  ideal  never  yet  realized ! 
Life,  a  sacred  thing.  Every  child  a  divine  promise. 
Every  family  beginning  the  race  anew  from  a  higher 
point.  Brothers  and  sisters  ministering  angels  to 
each  other's  purity  and  beneficence.  Every  addition 
a  new  element  of  happiness.  Education  the  rearing 
of  a  living  temple.  Conjugal  love  a  central  fountain 
in  warm,  fragrant,  perpetual  play.     The  father  the 


io8  Our  Children. 

representative  of  God  ;  feeding  them,  as  a  prophet, 
with  more  than  angel's  food  ;  as  a  priest,  standing 
at  the  portico  of  the  temple  to  guard  it  from  pollu- 
tion, or  ministering  at  its  holy  altar,  and  finding  his 
spirit  purified  and  refreshed  by  the  service  ;  swaying 
like  a  king,  a  divine  scepter,  and  tasting  the  God- 
like blessedness  of  seeing  his  subjects  find  happiness 
and  freedom  in  obedience.  The  mother,  the  earli- 
est to  enter  the  infant  heart,  and  to  take  possession 
in  the  name  of  God ;  radiating  on  her  children  the 
light  and  life  of  her  own  intense  affection,  and  in- 
vested in  addition  with  the  delegated  and  solemn 
reverence  of  paternal  authority.  Home,  the  home 
of  the  affections  ;  where  law  is  superseded  by  love ; 
where  the  lowliest  act  is  consecrated  and  ennobled 
by  the  highest  motive ;  and  where  separate  individ- 
ual interests  are  forgotten  in  the  aim  of  each  for  the 
good  of  all.  The  family,  sending  forth  its  youthful 
members — each  with  a  heritage  of  happy  recollec- 
tions and  holy  habits,  impressed  with  the  sanctity 
and  high  responsibilities  of  the  domestic  constitu- 
tion, studiously  trained  and  qualified  to  enter  on 
them,  and  determined  to  raise  still  higher,  if  possi- 
ble, in  his  own  circle,  the  standard  of  his  early 
home.  The  aged  patriarch,  happy  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  having  linked  his  mind  for  good  with  all  his 
own  immediate  offspring,  and  cheered  by  the  pros- 
pect of  transmitting,  through  them,  the  happiest  in- 
fluence to  others  through  an  ever-enlarging  circle. 


The  Family  a  School  of  Religion.  109 

Tlie  generation,  conscious  of  rising,  and  aspiring  to 
rise  still  higher ;  recognizing  in  its  present  blessed- 
ness the  proof  that  God  is  its  paterfamilias ;  and 
valuing  the  future  chiefly  as  the  means  of  perpetu- 
al approximation  to  the  only  perfect  home  in  the 
bosom  of  God.  Such  are  the  capabilities  of  the 
family,  and  the  sunny  visions  at  which  it  hints." 

Surely  since  the  wreck  of  Eden  there  has  ap- 
peared among  the  children  of  men  no  picture  so 
fair,  so  noble,  so  inspiring  and  so  full  of  hope  for 
both  worlds,  as  a  well-ordered  and  truly  Christian 
family.  Here  indeed  are  repeated,  from  day  to  day, 
the  miracles  of  Providence  and  the  wonders  of  grace. 
Here,  in  a  most  precious  and  peculiar  sense,  the 
Lord  is  *'  Emmanuel,"  "'  which  being  interpreted  is, 
God  with  us."  Here  is  seen  the  pillar  of  cloud  by 
day  and  of  fire  by  night.  Around  this  habitation 
manna  descends,  "  every  morning  new."  Whatever 
else  may  be  parched  and  arid,  here  there  is  dew 
"  as  the  dew  of  Hermon,  and  as  the  dew  that  de- 
scended upon  the  mountains  of  Zion  :  for  there  the 
Lord  commanded  the  blessing,  even  life  for  ever- 
more." . 


no  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER   X. 


THE  DUTY  OF  TEACHING  GOD'S  WORD  TO  OUR 
CHILDREN. 

TIJ*OR  the  children  the  family  is  a  school — the 
-■-  parents  being  the  divinely  appointed  teachers. 
This  is  not  a  question  of  mere  privilege,  although 
it  is  a  very  lofty  privilege  that  God  gives  us  when 
he  allows  us  to  teach  his  precious  word  to  our  chil- 
dren. It  is  a  duty  the  most  imperative,  the  most 
solemn,  that  can  appeal  to  our  judgment,  our  affec- 
tions, and  our  conscience.  He  who  does  not  know 
that  he  ought  to  teach  God's  word  to  his  children — 
that  he  owes  it  to  God,  to  his  children,  to  the 
Church,  to  society,  and  to  his  own  soul — does  not 
know  what  every  true  father  must  know — does  not 
feel  as  every  true  father  must  feel.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion for  the  capriciousness  of  human  inclination,  or 
the  arbitrariness  of  human  choice.  It  is  a  question 
of  law — as  the  ten  commandments  are  law.  God 
does  not  simply  advise  or  exhort — he  coininands  : 
"  And  these  words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day, 
shall  be  in  thine  heart :  and  thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them 
when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou 
vvalkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  licst  down,  and 
when  thou  risest  up." 


Teaching  God's  Word  to  Oitr  Children.       i  f  i 

This  holy  work  all  parents  must  do.  God  com- 
mands it.  It  is  not  a  matter  to  be  argued  about — 
to  be  debated  or  doubted.  It  is  a  duty  to  be  done 
— that  must  be  done,  if  we  would  escape  the  right- 
eous condemnation  of  a  broken  and  holy  law.  Nor 
may  this  very  sacred  duty  be  left  to  accident  for 
its  performance — to  be  a  pious  amusement  for  our 
leisure,  a  something  good  enough  when  it  is  done, 
but  that  may  be  omitted  innocently  by  us,  and 
without  damage  to  our  children.  We  are  not  only 
to  teach  God's  word  to  our  children,  but  to  intend 
to  do  it ;  not  only  to  teach  them,  but  to  take  all 
l^ossible  pains  to  do  it.  God's  word  is  plain — it  is 
unmistakable :  '*  And  thou  shalt  teach  them  dili- 
gently to  thy  children."  He  who  does  not  under- 
stand this  does  not  understand  the  commandment, 
"Thou  shalt  not  kill;"  he  does  not  understand  any 
thing.  No  place  is  left  for  doubting  or  dodging 
this  duty;  for  omitting  it  or  transferring  its  respon- 
sibilities. "  And  tJioii  " — not  another,  or  others,  how 
great,  or  good,  or  learned,  or  skillful  soever  they  may 
be — ''  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  " — not  incidentally, 
casually,  carelessly,  occasionally — "  thou  shalt  teach 
them  diligently  unto  thy  children." 

And  it  is  a  perpetual  duty,  a  constant  obligation, 
an  unintermittent  responsibility.  It  presses  upon 
us,  it  commands  us  at  home,  abroad,  every-where, 
all  the  time.  The  sense  of  obligation  to  do  this 
holy  duty  must  pervade  and  solemnize  our  entire 


112  Our  Children. 

family  life.  No  business,  however  pressing,  no  pleas- 
ure, however  fascinating,  no  human  interest  what- 
ever can  affect  it.  It  is  not  a  duty  for  one  man-  -as 
the  man  of  wealth,  of  leisure,  of  learning,  of  piety. 
Nothing,  among  all  the  employments  or  pleasures 
of  men,  can  be  so  important  that  it  may  interfere 
with  this  duty,  hinder  this  work,  hghten  this  obliga- 
tion. Our  condition  in  life  ;  our  mere  circumstances 
of  prosperity  or  adversity,  wealth  or  poverty,  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  Are  we  parents?  Have  we 
been  the  means  of  bringing  children  into  this  world  ? 
The  fact  of  parenthood  settles  the  question  of  respon- 
sibility  and  constitutes  the  call  to  duty.  If  we  are 
parents  we  must — not  we  may — teach  God's  word, 
his  will,  his  providence,  his  grace,  his  saving  truths 
to  our  children. 

How  definite,  how  precise  are  the  words!  How 
imperative  the  command !  And  no  wonder ;  the 
eternal  interests  of  immortal  souls  are  connected 
with  the  performance  or  neglect  of  this  duty. 

As  already  pointed  out,  this  peculiar  duty  is  one 
that,  if  done  at  all,  must  be  done  by  the  parents ; 
if  they  do  it  not  it  is  never  done,  it  can  never  be 
done.  Let  us  read  again,  carefully  and  prayerfully, 
this  command  of  God,  and,  if  there  is  any  heart  to 
believe  in  us,  we  will  respond  to  it :  "  And  these 
words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in 
thine  heart:  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently 
unto  thy  children."    When  ?    Where  ?     ''  And  shalt 


Teaching  God 's  Word  to  Our  Cliildrcn.       1 1 3 

talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and 
when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  h'est 
down,  and  when  thou  risest  up." 

These  words  are  much  plainer  in  their  meaning, 
and  far  more  impressive  in  their  injunctions,  than  if 
God,  speaking  through  Moses,  had  said :  "  And  at 
a  certain  set  time  " — on  Sunday  afternoon  at  three 
o'clock ;  and  at  the  church,  or  in  the  Sunday-school, 
or  by  the  fireside — "  thou  shalt  teach  these  words." 
No  ;  this  duty  abides  with  us,  rests  on  our  con- 
sciences as  we  sit  in  our  houses,  walks  with  us  by 
the  way,  solemnizes  our  thoughts  when  we  lie  down, 
meets  us  with  its  demands  when  we  rise  up.  It  is 
a  duty  that  begins  with  the  birth  of  our  first  child 
and  ends  never.  Nay,  it  begins  before  a  child  is 
born,  for  those  should  not  be  parents  who  will  not 
prepare  themselves  for  the  duties  of  parenthood. 
The  performance  of  this  duty  belongs  to  the  entire 
course  of  family  life. 

And  lest  we  ourselves  forget,  lest  our  children 
forget,  the  lessons  are  to  be  repeated  perpetually, 
they  are  to  be  stereotyped  in  memory,  they  are  to 
saturate  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  and  employ- 
ments of  every  day.  We  are  to  knozv  God's  words 
and  our  children  are  to  know  them.  "  And  thou 
shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  thine  hand,  and  they 
shall  be  as  frontlets  between  thine  eyes.  And  thou 
shalt  write  them  upon  the  posts  of  thy  house,  and 

on  thy  gates." 
8 


114  Oup  Children. 

O  the  loss,  the  incalculable,  the  shameful,  the 
guilty  loss,  of  not  knowing  God's  words !  O  the 
cruel  wrong,  the  heinous  sin  of  not  teaching  them 
to  our  children  !  Why  is  this  duty  pressed  upon  us 
so  imperatively,  as  if  God  would  burn  it  into  our 
minds,  and  hearts,  and  consciences?  Because  so 
much,  for  both  worlds,  depends  upon  its  perform- 
ance. Because  the  right  knowledge  of  God's  words 
— his  will,  his  government,  his  grace,  his  salvation — 
is  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  our  children  in  this 
world  and  their  salvation  in  the  next. 

"  Whom  to  know  is  life  eternal !  "  What  does  he 
know  who  does  not  know  God  ?  What  is  knowledge 
that  leaves  out  the  knowledge  of  God  ?  What  is 
learning  that  forgets,  or  contemns,  the  truths  of 
God  ?  What  is  education — though  a  thousand  di- 
plomas certify  its  depth  and  variety — that  neglects 
or  despises  the  word  of  God  ?  He  knows  most  who 
knows  God  best ;  he  is  most  learned  who  is  most 
learned  in  the  things  of  God ;  he  is  wisest  who 
knows,  not  merely  the  most  facts,  but  the  most 
truth ;  he  is  best  educated  whose  mind  is  most  il- 
lumined by  the  light  of  Divine  revelation,  whose 
heart  is  most  surely  enshrined  in  the  promises  of 
God's  grace,  whose  conscience  is  most  responsive 
to  the  demands  of  God's  law,  whose  life  is  most 
obedient  to  the  requirements  of  God's  will.  Will 
we  never  learn  our  most  sacred  duty?  Will  we 
never  know  our  best  and  noblest  work?     Will  we 


Teaching  God 's  Word  to  otir  Children.        1 1 5 

never  know  what  is  the  chief  good  we  can  do  our 
children — the  richest  heritage  we  can  leave  them? 

No  doubt  we  love  them.  We  toil  for  them  throug-h 
winter  and  summer.  We  never  rest.  We  think  for 
them  by  day  and  dream  of  them  by  night.  They 
fill  our  thoughts ;  they  create  our  anxieties ;  they 
excite  our  hopes ;  they  alarm  our  fears.  But,  alas  ! 
we  love  them  in  a  blind  sort  of  way — the  love  of 
higher  instinct — when  we  do  not  know  that  for 
our  children  the  best  knowledge,  and,  indeed,  the 
only  indispensable  knowledge,  is  the  knowledge  of 
God. 

How  early  we  send  them  to  earthly  schools ! 
How  carefully  we  choose  their  teachers !  How  we 
seek  to  make  them  wise  in  the  use  of  words  that 
they  may  speak  well  with  their  fellow-citizens  in  the 
gates !  How  we  wish  them  to  be  skillful  in  the  use 
of  numbers  that  they  may  conduct  their  business 
successfully !  And  much  other  human  learning  we 
think  indispensable  to  them.  Our  fond  hearts  are 
thrilled  when  our  boys  win  applause  for  their  youth- 
ful oratory,  when  our  girls  are  complimented  on 
their  skill  in  music,  or  on  their  grace  of  manner 
We  spend  money,  time,  and  toil  in  giving  them  the 
knowledge  of  this  world.  And  this  is  right,  so  far 
as  it  goes.  We  have  neither  word  nor  thought  to 
discredit  the  true  secular  teacher,  or  to  discount  the 
value  of  a  thorough  scholastic  education.  But  this 
is  not  all. 


ii6  Our  ChildrEi'J. 

*'  Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 
That  mind  and  soul  according  well, 
May  make  one  music  as  before, 

.  .  .  But  vaster." 

How  many  parents  arc  solicitous  about  the  world- 
ly education  of  their  children,  but  careless,  forgetful, 
indifferent  as  to  their  education  in  Divine  things ! 
How  many  thousands  of  children  have  lived  through 
infancy,  and  early  childhood,  and  adolescent  youth, 
and  have  died  and  gone  into  the  eternal  world,  who, 
if  they  bear  with  them  any  account  of  their  parents 
must  say,  ''  My  father  toiled  for  me,  sent  mc  to 
school,  taught  me  business,  but  I  never  heard  him 
pray ;  he  never  told  me  of  God,  his  government,  or 
his  grace !  '* 

What  bitter  tears  should  flow,  what  lamentations 
should  we  wail  out  of  our  breaking  hearts,  when  we 
stand  by  the  cold  clay  of  a  darling  child,  dressed 
for  its  burial  and  gone  from  us  forever,  when  we 
remember,  '^  He  never  heard  me  pray  —  I  never 
taught  him  God's  word — I  never  led  him  to  his 
Saviour!"  Will  we  not  conclude  such  a  lamenta- 
tion with  this  confession  :  *'  I  was  no  true  father,  no 
true  mother  to  you,  my  wronged  and  neglected  dar- 
ling!" What  a  shadow  the  consciousness  of  such 
failure,  of  s  "ch  neglect,  must  throw  across  the  life  of 
a  parent  who  has,  perhaps,  done  all  that  he  could  do 
for  his  child  except  this,  o(  all  others,  most  sacred, 
most  necessary  duty — to  teach  him  the  word  of  God  ! 


Teaching  God  V  vVord  to  on?-  Children.       1 17 

We  have  often  thought  that  there  sobs  out — as  a 
pathetic  undertone — in  the  lamentations  of  David, 
over  rebellious  and  lost  Absalom,  the  consciousness 
of  some  sacred  parental  duties  neglected,  or  but  par- 
tially performed.  In  Absalom's  boyhood  and  youth 
David  was  sorely  pressed  with  the  cares  of  govern- 
ment. His  enemies,  pressing  his  kingdom  on  every 
side  ;  his  intractable  and  half-civilized  people  crowd- 
ed his  waking  thoughts  with  anxieties,  his  dreams 
with  cares  and  alarms.  He  had  little  time,  during 
all  this  period,  to  watch  over  the  morals  of  his  chil- 
dren, to  teach  them  God's  words,  or  to  train  them 
in  their  duties.  But  Absalom — bright,  beautiful, 
quick-witted,  and  ambitious — was  not  slow  to  learn. 
In  the  court  and  in  the  camp  he  soon  learned  the 
''  words  "  of  men,  the  ways  of  the  world,  but  God  was 
not  in  all  his  thoughts.  In  all  his  words  and  deeds 
Absalom  shows  himself  simply  a  man  of  the  world. 
By  and  by  the  penalty  came,  as,  sooner  or  later,  it 
always  will  and  must  come.  David  little  knew  what 
a  storm  was  brewing,  and  when  at  last  it  burst  upon 
his  house  it  well-nigh  broke  his  heart.  The  loving 
father's  heart  was  sorely  wrung  when  he  thought  of 
his  idolized  children.  There  was  dishonored  Ta- 
mar  and  dead  Amnon — and  by  a  brother's  hand. 
And  now,  at  last,  after  treason  and  all  manner  of 
wickedness,  Absalom — so  fondly  loved,  so  petted, 
and  so  spoiled — hangs  dead  from  the  thick  boughs 
of  an  oak  in  the  dark  ''  wood  of  Ephraim."     This 


ii8  Our  Children. 

time  victory  brought  no  joy  to  David.  Absalom — 
his  beautiful  and  petted  Absalom — is  dead  and  lost 
— forever  lost1 

There  is  nothing  sadder  than  David's  lamentation, 
and,  as  it  seems  to  us,  his  conscience  bleeds  with  his 
heart  as  he  wails  out  his  sorrows  in  sobs  and  cries. 
''And  the  king  was  much  moved,  and  went  up  to 
the  chamber  over  the  gate,  and  wept :  and  as  he 
went,  thus  he  said,  O  my  son  Absalom,  my  son,  my 
son  Absalom!  would  God  I  had  died  for  thee,  O 
Absalom,  my  son,  my  son  !  " 

Were  it  better  never  to  have  been  born  than  to 
live  to  look  on  such  a  sight  as  wicked,  ungrateful, 
impenitent,  unpardoned,  unprepared  and  lost  Ab- 
salom, hanging  dead  in  the  "  wood  of  Ephraim  ?  " 

That  father  who  is  too  busy  to  teach  his  chil- 
dren God's  words  and  to  be  the  priest  of  his  house 
is  too  busy  for  his  soul's  good — too  busy  to  be  a 
father.  If  his  children,  untaught  and  untrained  in 
the  ways  of  life,  shall  live  without  God  and  die 
without  hope,  be  sure  their  blood  will  cry  from  the 
wet  and  sobbing  earth  against  him.  That  father 
whc  is  so  borne  down  with  honors  and  public  cares 
that  he  cannot  perform  the  duty  of  a  father,  is  too 
great  before  men  to  be  great  before  God.  No  cares 
of  government — no  necessities  of  civil  or  ecclesias- 
tical position — modify  or  abridge  the  obligations  that 
inhere  in  the  very  relation  of  fatherhood.  If  the 
king  cannot  rule  his  people  and  teach  God's  word 


Teaching  God's  Word  to  our  Children.  119 

to  his  children,  and  be  a  true  priest  in  his  house, 
there  is  no  room  for  debate ;  he  must  be  no  more 
king.  There  are  fathers  who  should  take  this  to 
heart.  There  can  be  in  this  world  no  more  sacred 
relation  than  that  of  fatherhood ;  nothing  in  this 
world  may  come  between  a  father  and  the  duty  he 
owes  his  child.  Whatever  hinders  him  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duty,  that,  if  he  truly  fear  God  and 
wisely  love  his  child,  he  will  turn  from  and  eschew. 
Whatever  is  left  undone,  the  duties  of  fatherhood  and 
motherhood  must  be  done.  And  yet  there  are  some 
parents  who  neither  think  nor  care.  They  are  of 
this  world  ;  they  build,  not  on  God's  plan,  but  on 
their  own,  meager  and  false  though  it  is.  They 
assume  to  choose  and  to  decide.  They  set  God's 
claims  aside,  or  subordinate  them  to  the  claims  of 
business  or  pleasure  !  Audacious  unbelief,  damna- 
ble self-will ! 

Concerning  those  whose  plan  of  life  is  so  meager, 
so  human,  so  selfish,  so  carnal,  we  might  use  St. 
Paul's  terrible  words  in  describing  him  who  is  only 
a  citizen  of  this  world  :  '*  For  many  walk,  of  whom  I 
have  told  you  often,  and  now  tell  you  even  weeping, 
that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ ; 
whose  end  is  destruction,  whose  god  is  their  belly, 
and  whose  glory  is  in  their  shame,  who  mind  earth- 
ly  things." 

And  theie  are  some  parents — parents  only  in  this 
one  sense,  they  have  been  the  instruments  of  bring- 


120  Our  Chiudren. 

ing  children  into  this  world— who  are  so  cons  imed 
by  personal  ambition,  so  fascinated  with  worldly 
pleasures,  that  they  have  neither  time  nor  heart  for 
the  instruction  of  their  children.  It  is  a  pitiful  and 
shameful  sight  to  see  a  father  so  swallowed  up  by 
love  of  money,  so  consumed  by  ambition,  that  he  has 
no  time  to  teach  his  children  the  ways  of  wisdom 
and  life.  To  see  a  mother  —  if  such  a  one  may  be 
called  a  mother — so  absorbed  by  pleasure  and  fash- 
ion that  she  has  no  deep  maternal  longings  to  car- 
ry her  little  ones  in  her  arms  to  Jesus — to  teach 
them  the  way  of  salvation — this  is  a  shame  and  a 
crime  for  which  there  are  no  words. 

Very  strong  and  bold,  but  just  and  true,  are  the 
words  of  Dr.  Robert  South  on  this  subject : — 

"Let  parents  endeavor  to  deserve  that  honor 
which  God  has  commanded  their  children  to  pay 
them  ;  and  believe  it,  that  must  be  by  greater  and 
better  offices  than  barely  bringing  them  into  this 
world ;  which  of  itself  puts  them  only  in  danger  of 
passing  into  a  worse.  And  as  the  good  old  sentence 
tells  us,  that  it  is  better  a  great  deal  to  be  unborn 
than  either  unbred  or  bred  amiss,  so  it  cannot  but 
be  matter  of  very  sad  reflection  to  any  parent  to 
think  within  himself  that  he  should  be  instrumental 
to  give  his  child  a  body  only  to  damn  his  soul.  And, 
therefore,  let  parents  remember,  that  as  the  paternal 
is  the  most  honorable  relation  so  it  is  also  the  great- 
est trust  in  the  world,  and  that  God  will  be  a  certain 


Teaching  God 's  Word  to  our  Children,       1 2 1 

and  severe  exactor  of  it ;  and  the  more  so,  because 
they  have  such  weighty  opportunities  to  discharge 
it,  and  that  with  almost  infallible  success. 

"  Now  these  and  the  like  considerations,  one  would 
think,  should  remind  parents  what  a  dreadful  ac- 
count lies  upon  them,  for  their  children,  by  the  laws 
of  God  and  man,  owe  them  the  greatest  reverence ; 
so  there  is  a  sort  of  reverence  also  that  they  as 
much  owe  their  children :  a  reverence  that  should 
make  them  not  dare  to  speak  a  filthy  word,  or  to 
do  a  base  or  indecent  action  before  them.  What 
says  our  Saviour  to  this  point  ?  *  Whosoever  shall 
offend  one  of  these  little  ones  ...  it  were  better  for 
him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and 
that  he  were  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea ! '  And 
surely  he  who  teaches  the  little  ones  to  offend  God, 
offends  them  with  a  witness  ;  indeed,  so  unmerciful- 
ly, that  it  would  be  much  the  less  cruelty  of  the  two 
if  the  wretch,  their  father,  should  stab  or  stifle  these 
poor  innocents  in  their  nurse's  arms.  For  then  he 
might  damn  himself  alone,  and  not  his  children  also; 
and  himself,  for  his  own  sins  only,  and  not  for  theirs 
too.  .  .  . 

"  These  things  I  say,  and  a  thousand  more,  par- 
ents are  to  be  perpetually  inculcating  in  the  minds 
of  their  children,  according  to  that  strict  injunction 
of  God  himself  to  the  Israelites :  '  These  words, 
which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thine 
heart:  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 


122  Our  Children. 

children,  and  snalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in 
thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way, 
and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest 
up.'  Such  discourses  should  open  their  eyts  in  the 
morning  and  close  them  in  the  evening." 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching.  123 


I 


CHAPTER   XI. 

TRAINING  AS  WELL  AS  TEACHING. 

T  is  not  only  our  duty  to  teach  our  children  what 
is  right,  we  must  also  train  them  in  the  practice 
of  what  is  right.  "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he 
should  go :  and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart 
from  it."  An  eminent  and  judicious  critic,  Henry 
Cowles,  in  his  notes  on  this  passage,  says:  "The 
word  for  *  train  up'  means  to  educate,  to  confirm  in 
a  given  course.  The  translation,  *  in  the  way  he 
should  go,'  is  what  we  call  free,  departing  consider- 
ably from  the  literal  form  of  the  original,  yet  not 
perhaps  from  its  true  sense.  The  original  would 
naturally  read,  after  the  manner  of  his  way ;  that  is, 
train  him  with  reference  to  his  future  way,  in  a 
manner  corresponding  to  what  his  future  is  to  be ; 
which  certainly  may  mean,  to  what  you  wish  it  to 
be,  to  what  it  ought  to  be.  .  .  .  Probably  Solomon 
meant,  shape  the  young  twig  as  you  would  the  fut- 
ure  tree ;  give  your  child  a  culture  for  the  after-life 
which  you  wish  him  to  live." 

Some  good  people  have  found  a  stumbling-block 
in  this  passage.  They  point  to  those  who  have,  as 
they  conceive,  performed  the  condition ;  who  have, 
as  they  say,  ''  trained  up  their  children  in  the  way 


124  Our  Children. 

they  should  go,"  but  whose  children  have  notorious- 
ly gone  in  the  way  they  should  not  go.  Where, 
then,  suggests  unbelief,  is  the  promise?  We  great- 
ly fear  that  many  parents  have  insensibly  fallen  in 
with  perhaps  the  most  pernicious  notion  possible 
to  be  entertained  by  them  on  this  subject — that  it 
is,  after  all,  a  matter  akin  to  chance  at  best.  It 
makes  little  difference,  the  devil  whispers,  what  you 
do.  Those  children  that  are  going  to  be  good,  will 
be  good  any  way ;  those  that  are  going  to  be  bad, 
will  be  bad  in  spite  of  all  that  you  can  do.  Alas! 
that  a  notion  so  absurd,  so  false,  so  pernicious, 
should  be  entertained  at  all.  It  is  absurd,  for  it  is 
inconceivable,  that  a  God  of  order,  of  wisdom,  of 
goodness,  of  justice,  has  left  our  children  to  the 
sport  of  chance,  or  to  the  inexorable  decrees  of  blind 
fate.  It  is  false,  for  it  contradicts  experience,  ob- 
servation, sound  sense,  and  the  express  teachings 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

The  words  of  Solomon  are  the  statement  of  a 
principle.  It  agrees  with  every  law  we  know  of 
human  life  that  right  conduct  should  follow  right 
training.  And  it  is  a  broader  principle  than  this — 
it  is  the  statement  of  a  universal  truth ;  training — ■ 
good  or  bad — determines  the  future  conduct.  It  is 
not  peculiar  to  right  training  that  it  results  in  right 
living,  any  more  than  it  is  peculiar  to  wrong  train- 
ing that  it  results  in  bad  living.  It  is  as  broad  as 
St.  Paul's  proposition:  **  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching,  125 

that  shall  he  also  reap."  His  succeeding  proposi- 
tions are  contained  in  this  broad  and  axiomatic 
statement :  *'  For  he  that  soweth  to  his  flesh  shall 
of  the  flesh  reap  corruption ;  but  he  that  soweth  to 
the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting." 

We  would  not  go  to  any  extreme  length  in  the 
statement  or  application  of  this  principle.  It  will 
not  do  to  say,  the  child,  rightly  taught  and  trained, 
is  obliged  to  do  right,  as  if  he  could  not  do  wrong. 
For  no  amount  of  right  training  interferes  with 
volition.  The  rightly  trained  child  is  still  free— free 
as  the  angels,  ''  who  kept  not  their  first  estate  " — free 
as  our  first  parents,  who  fell  by  disobedience  in 
Eden.  If  a  rightly  trained  child  ''departs"  from 
''the  way  in  which  he  should  go,"  we  may  say  of 
him, 

"  Sufficient  to  have  stood,  though  free  to  fall." 

Solomon  speaks  in  the  text  not  of  a  possible  neces- 
sity, but  of  what  we  might  call  a  probable  certainty. 
It  is  not  that  a  rightly  trained  child  cannot  depart 
from  the  "way  he  should  go,"  but  that  he  will  not. 
He  can  if  he  will ;  but,  though  he  can,  he  will  not. 
It  will  not  be  his  will  to  do  so.  Being  trained 
aright,  it  is  aln^ost  a  moral  certainty  that  he  will 
zvill  to  do  right. 

But  if,  in  any  given  case,  there  seems  to  be  a  con- 
tradiction between  Solomon's  text  and  the  supposed 
facts ;  if  a  good  man  "  tries  hard,"  as  he  says,  "  to 
train  his  children  aright,"  and  they  go  astray,  is  it 


126  Our  Children. 

not  going  very  far— indeed,  altogether  too  far— for 
him  to  say,  "  I  did  what  the  text  enjoins,  and  my 
children  have  gone  astray  ?  "  That  his  children  /lave 
gone  astray  may  be  plain  enough,  but  who  will  dare 
to  say,  '■'  I  have  done  all  my  duty  in  training  them  in 
the  way  in  which  they  should  go?"  He  would  be, 
indeed,  a  bold  man  who,  in  such  a  case,  would  dare 
to  affirm  so  much. 

There  is  more  in  ''training"  than  mere  ''teach- 
ing." St.  Paul  says,  "And,  ye  fathers,*  provoke 
not  your  children  to  wrath :  but  bring  them  up  in 
the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  Here  we 
find  discipline  as  well  as  instruction.  Children  are 
to  be  drilled  as  well  as  instructed  in  the  right  way. 
The  soldier  learns  the  use  of  his  arms  not  simply 
by  reading  some  "  Manual"  on  the  subject,  or  by 
being  told  how  to  use  them,  or  how  not  to  use  them, 
but  by  drill  in  the  use  of  them.  The  family  is  not 
merely  a  school,  it  is  also  a  drill. 

The  mere  enforcement  of  good  conduct  is  not 
enough ;  the  mere  inculcation  of  sound  principle  is 
not  enough.  If  we  would  truly  "bring  up  our  chil- 
dren in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord," 
it  is  not  enough  that  we  simply  teach  them  what  is 
right,  nor  that  we  simply  compel  them  to  do  what 
is  right.  True  knowing,  true  doing,  and  true  being, 
involve  each  other.     They  go  together,  and  cannot, 

*  The  mothers  being  included,  also,  as  subject  to  the  husbands,  they 
being  the  fountains  of  domestic  rule. — Alford. 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching  127 

without  disappointment  and  defeat  be  separated. 
They  are  mutually  corrective  and  conservative.  The 
knowledge  of  duty  ought  to  insure  the  doing  of 
duty ;  while  the  doing  of  duty  will  surely  enlarge 
and  perfect  the  knowledge  of  duty.  The  psalmist 
teaches  us  that  "  the  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  sure, 
making  wise  the  simple."  A  greater  than  the  psalm- 
ist has  said,  ''  If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  [that  is, 
wills  to  do  his  will^  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  of  my- 
self." And  St.  Paul  teaches  us  that  he  alone 
''  proves " — that  is,  realizes  in  his  own  conscious- 
ness and  experience — that  God's  will  is  "  good,  per- 
fect, and  acceptable,"  who  thoroughly  seeks  to  do 
that  will. 

Oversight  or  neglect  of  this  double  principle  ex- 
plains, in  many  instances,  the  apparent  contradic- 
tion between  efforts  and  results  in  the  experience 
of  some  who  have  tried  hard  to  rear  their  children 
aright,  but  whose  failure  to  make  good  men  and 
women  out  of  them  is  sometimes  as  notorious  as  it 
is  mournful.  Some  parents  only  teach  what  is  right, 
and  give  themselves  little  concern  about  the  per- 
formance, relying  upon  the  power  of  truth  alone ; 
others  compel  performance,  without  taking  the 
trouble  to  instruct,  relying  upon  the  habit  of  en- 
forced obedience  alone.  In  the  first  case,  the  in- 
struction needs  to  be  connected  with  habits  of  right 
doing;  and  if  the  habit  be  not  induced,  the  mere 


128  Our  Children. 

knowledge  of  duty  is  easily  forgotten  or  overlooked, 
and  the  conviction  of  duty  readily  disappears  before 
temptation  to  do  wrong.  In  the  latter,  where  there 
is  only  compulsion,  rendered  possible  by  the  parent's 
superior  strength  and  the  child's  dependence  and 
subordination,  there  is  nothing  but  a  kind  of  force. 
It  does  not  take  hold  upon  the  mind — the  thoughts 
and  sentiments — and  no  real  habits  of  virtue  are 
formed.  As  there  is  nothing  but  compulsion,  when, 
by  the  lapse  of  years,  the  child  is  free  from  parental 
restraint,  there  is  nothing  left  but  a  memory  of 
what — for  the  want  of  instruction  and  nurture  in 
sound  principles — is  recalled  as  a  sort  of  slavery. 
In  this  case,  the  only  centripetal  force  is  parental 
compulsion.  When  the  child  is  free,  by  attaining 
its  majority,  or  by  the  death  of  the  parent,  the 
centrifugal  forces  of  depraved  nature  have  no  cor- 
rective and  no  restraint,  and  the  child  very  naturally 
flies  from  his  orbit  and  goes  wandering  into  the 
darkness — witherward  no  man  knows.  It  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  parents  and  teachers  recog- 
nize and  act  upon  this  double  principle.  Then, 
with  every  ground  of  confidence,  it  may  be  expect- 
ed that  our  children  will,  in  all  their  future  life,  find 
that  sound  principles  will  regulate  their  conduct, 
and  that  good  habits  of  life  will  imbed  these  prin- 
ciples in  the  mind,  and  that  all  the  cardinal  virtues 
will  become,  so  to  speak,  part  of  their  spiritual 
nature. 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching. 


<i> 


129 


Something  was  said  before  about  ''habits."  Who 
fully  understands,  who  can  fully  expound  the  law 
of  habit  ?  What  power  there  is  in  habit !  Are  not 
all  men,  for  the  most  part,  controlled  by  their  hab- 
its? True,  a  man  can  will  to  cross  the  current  of 
his  habits,  but  it  is  rarely  done.  And  when  one 
does  summon  courage  to  make  the  attempt,  it  is 
often  very  like  crossing  a  swollen  stream  with  a  frail 
canoe — there  is  a  mighty  drift,  and  the  landing  is 
not  straight  across  from  the  starting  point,  but  far 
below  it. 

He  who  forms  a  deeply  set  habit  of  thinking,  feel- 
ing, and  doing  right,  moves  with  the  current  of  a 
mighty  tide  of  life,  and  has  good  hope,  through 
grace,  of  making  a  happy  landing  at  last. 

The  law  of  habit  has  a  far  wider  and  more  poten- 
tial reign  than  most  persons  imagine.  It  sways  its 
strong  scepter  over  the  physical,  the  intellectual, 
and  the  spiritual  man.  The  bodily  functions  and 
appetites  are  under  the  law  of  habit.  So  is  the  in- 
tellect and  the  affections.  We  form  habits  of  think- 
ing and  feeling,  as  well  as  of  doing.  And  what  is 
of  unspeakable  importance  to  consider  and  under- 
stand— habits  set  us  in  our  ways,  be  they  good  or 
bad.  "Habit,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "  if  not  resisted 
becomes  necessity."  Dr.  Johnson  has  well  expressed 
the  same  truth,  "  The  diminutive  chains  of  habit 
are  seldom  heavy  enough  to  be  felt,  till  they  arc 
too  strong  to  be  broken."     And  herein  is  the  chief 


I30  Our  Children. 

danger — ruinous  habits  may  be  fastened  upon  us 
before  we  are  fairly  conscious  of  their  existence. 
As  Archbishop  Whately  has  said,  "  It  is  important 
to  keep  in  mind  that  habits  are  formed,  not  at  one 
stroke,  but  gradually  and  insensibly ;  so  that,  unless 
vigilant  care  be  employed,  a  great  change  may 
come  over  the  charac'.er  without  our  being  conscious 
of  any."  Hence  the  wisdom  of  Locke's  caution, 
**  Whoever  introduces  habits  in  children  deserves 
the  care  and  attention  of  their  governors."  How 
irresistible  our  gradually  and  unconsciously  formed 
habits  may  become  is  well  illustrated  by  Bentham  : 
''  Like  flakes  of  snow  that  fall  unperceived  upon  the 
earth,  the  seemingly  unimportant  events  of  life  suc- 
ceed one  another.  As  the  snow  gathers  together, 
so  are  our  habits  formed.  No  single  flake  that  is 
added  to  the  pile  produces  a  sensible  change.  No 
single  action  creates,  however  it  may  exhibit,  a 
man's  character ;  but  as  the  tempest  hurls  the  ava- 
lanche down  the  mountain,  and  overwhelms  the  in- 
habitant and  his  habitation,  so  passion  acting  upon 
the  elements  of  mischief  which  pernicious  habits 
have  brought  together  by  imperceptible  accumu- 
lation, may  overthrow  the  edifice  of  truth  and 
virtue." 

In  illustrating  the  power  of  habit,  Miss  Marti- 
neau  tells  us  of  a  white  infant  who  was  captured  by 
the  Indians,  and  grew  up  among  them,  trained  to 
their  habits  of  life.     He  grew  up,  as  did  the  Indian 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching.  1 3 1 

boys,  to  think  that  he  was  the  greatest  man  who  had 
taken  the  greatest  number  of  scalps.  "  While  yet  a 
youth  he  was  rescued,  and  subsequently  became  a 
minister.  During  the  Revolutionary  War  he  held 
a  pastorate  near  the  scene  of  conflict.  He  went 
into  the  battle  in  his  ministerial  dress,  but  returned 
changed.  A  gentleman  saw  blood  on  his  shirt  and 
said,  'You  are  wounded!  '  The  clergyman  put  up 
his  hands  as  if  to  conceal  the  wound.  The  gentle- 
man, thinking  it  ought  to  be  looked  to,  pulled  open 
his  shirt,  and  from  beneath  it  took  out  a  bloody 
scalp  !  '  I  could  not  help  it,*  said  the  victim  of  early 
habits.  He  ran  to  the  Indians,  and  never  again  ap- 
peared among  the  whites." 

It  is  infinitely  better  for  a  child  never  to  form  bad 
habits  at  all.  If,  in  after  years,  he  should,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  be  delivered  from  them,  there  is,  as 
was  noticed  in  another  place,  always  a  danger  and  a 
tendency  in  the  currents  of  his  life  to  seek  the  old 
channels  again.  John  Foster,  in  one  of  his  essays, 
says  justly  and  forcibly:  ''I  know  from  experience 
that  habit  can,  in  direct  opposition  to  every  convic- 
tion of  the  mind,  and  but  little  aided  by  the  ele- 
ments of  temptation,  (such  as  present  pleasure,  etc.,) 
induce  a  repetition  of  the  most  unworthy  actions. 
The  mind  is  weak  when  it  has  once  given  way.  It 
is  long  before  a  principle  restored  can  become  as 
firm  as  one  that  has  never  been  removed.  It  is  as 
in   the   case  of  the   mound  of  a  reservoir:    if  this 


132  Our  Children. 

mound  has  in  one  place  been  broken,  whatever  care 
has  been  taken  to  make  the  repaired  part  as  strong 
as  possible,  the  probability  is,  that  if  it  give  way 
again  it  will  be  in  that placcy 

A  bad  habit  becomes  despotic.  The  Orientals 
portray  the  growth  and  power  of  such  a  habit  by  the 
following  fable  :  '■'  The  story  runs  that  as  Abdallah 
lingered  over  his  morning  repast,  a  little  fly  lighted 
on  his  goblet,  took  a  sip  and  was  gone.  It  came 
again  and  again,  increased^ts  charms,  became  bold- 
er and  bolder,  grew  in  size  till  it  presented  the 
likeness  of  a  man.  It  consumed  Abdallah's  meat, 
so  that  he  grew  thin  and  weak,  while  his  guest  be- 
came great  and  strong.  Then  contention  arose  be- 
tween them,  and  the  youth  smote  the  demon,  so 
that  he  departed,  and  th^  youth  rejoiced  at  his  de- 
liverance. But  the  demon  soon  came  again,  charm- 
ingly arrayed,  and  was  restored  to  favor.  On  the 
morning  the  youth  came  not  to  his  teacher.  The 
mufti,  searching,  found  him  in  his  chamber,  lying 
dead  upon  his  divan.  His  visage  was  black  and 
swollen,  and  on  his  throat  was  the  pressure  of  a 
finger,  broader  than  the  palm  of  a  mighty  man.  His 
treasures  were  gone.  In  the  garden  the  mufti  dis- 
covered the  footprints  of  a  giant,  one  of  which 
measured  six  cubits." 

We  see  the  power  of  habit  illustrated  in  the  case 
of  those  who  become,  at  last,  not  only  reconciled  tc 
discomforts,  but  who  reach  such  a  point  that  they 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching.  133 

find  pleasure  in  them.  Sir  George  Staunton,  a 
British  embassador  to  the  Court  of  China  toward 
the  close  of  the  last  century,  told  a  singular  story — 
that  might  be  easily  paralleled  in  the  writings  of 
modern  travelers — that  Colton  has  preserved.  Col- 
ton  says  :  "  The  late  Sir  George  Staunton  informed 
me  that  he  had  visited  a  man  in  India  who  had 
committed  a  murder;  and  in  order  not  only  to  save 
his  life,  but,  w^hat  was  of  much  more  consequence, 
his  caste^  he  submitted  to  the  penalty  imposed. 
This  was  that  he  should  sleep  for  seven  years  on  a 
bedstead  without  any  mattress,  the  whole  surface  of 
which  was  studded  with  points  of  iron  resembling 
nails,  but  not  so  sharp  as  to  penetrate  his  flesh.  Sir 
George  saw  him  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  probation, 
and  his  skin  was  then  like  the  hide  of  a  rhinocerus, 
but  more  callous.  At  that  time,  however,  he  could 
sleep  comfortably  on  his  *  bed  of  thorns ; '  and  re- 
marked that  at  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  his  sen- 
tence he  should  most  probably  continue  that  sys- 
tem from  choice  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  adopt 
from  necessity." 

With  what  yearning  solicitude  will  Christian  par- 
ents, who  are  wise  to  understand  these  things,  strive 
to  secure  the  formation  of  good  habits  in  their  chil- 
dren. And  they  cannot  begin  too  soon.  A  mother 
once  asked  a  man  of  wisdom,  "At  w^hat  age  should 
I  begin  to  teach  my  child?  " 

"  How  old  is  he  now?"  inquired  the  sage. 


134  Our  Children. 

*'  Two  years  old,"  the  mother  answered. 

•*  Then,"  said  he,  *'  you  have  already  lost  about 
two  years." 

Who  will  say  that  he  was  very  far  wrong,  for  we 
need  not  wait  till  our  children  understand  all  that 
we  teach  them.  *'  Influence,"  says  one,  **  far  more 
than  simple  rules,  secures  and  concerns  parental 
discipline." 

Undoubtedly,  parents  can,  from  the  earliest  infan- 
cy, bring  their  children  under  their  influence.    Before 
children  can  talk,  the  first  steps  can  be  taken  in  in- 
ducing the  formation  of  some  of  the  simple  but  car- 
dinal virtues.     Almost  from  the  beginning  of  life — 
if  we  ourselves  possess  these  virtues — we  can  begin 
to  teach  our  children  to  be  patient,  punctual,  order- 
ly, obedient,  generous,  honest,  truthful.     As  soon 
as  a  child  is  old  enough  to  know  the  difference  be- 
tween scattering  its  clothes  over  the  floor  and  put- 
ting them  properly  in  place  upon  going  to  bed  at 
night,  it  is  old  enough  to  begin  to  learn  habits  of 
neatness  and  order.     And  so  of  all  the  other  virtues 
of  this  class.     Surely  we  do  not  value  as  we  should 
the  importance  of  what  most  persons  esteem  th^ 
small  virtues  in  the  formation  of  good  habits  and  of 
good  character.     "  How  carefully,"  says  St.  Francis 
de  Sales,  "  we  should  cherish  the  little  virtues  which 
spring  up  at  the  foot  of  the  cross !  "     When  asked, 
''What  virtues  do  you  mean?"  he  replied,  "  H" 
mility,  patience,  meekness,  benignity,  bearing  one 


Training  as  Well  as  Teaching.  135 

another  s  burdens,  condescension,  cordiality,  com- 
passion; forgiving  injuries,  simplicity,  candor — all,  in 
short,  of  that  sort  of  little  virtues." 

We  know  not,  as  we  should,  the  conserving  and 
harmonizing  power  of  these  orderly  virtues.  As 
sometimes  one  sweet  voice,  singing  in  perfect  time 
and  tune,  may  harmonize  at  last  the  dissonant  voices 
of  an  ill-trained  congregation,  so  one  genuine  virtue 
firmly  established,  one  good  habit  fully  formed,  may 
hush  the  discords  of  an  unregulated  and  disor- 
dered life.  ■  • 

In  this  work  of  training  our  children  we  cannot 
begin  too  soon,  and  we  cannot  strive  with  too  great 
diligence  or  patience.  Above  all  we  cannot  be  too 
earnest  in  prayer  to  God  for  his  good  help  in  the 
most  responsible,  delicate,  difficult  and  useful  task 
ever  committed  to  mortals — the  task  of  ''  training 
up  our  children  in  the  way  in  which  they  should 
go,"  and  of  "  bringing  them  up  in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord." 

In  all  our  cares  and  strivings  for  our  children  let 
us  strive  above  all  things  to  bring  them  from  the 
beginning  under  divine  influences,  and  to  induce 
them,  at  the  very  dawn  of  accountable  life,  to  em- 
brace Jesus  as  their  Saviour  and  King.  Without 
Christ  all  our  teaching  and  all  our  drilling  will  be 
in  vain. 

Says  the  author  of  "•  Apples  of  Gold  :  "  "'  It  is  the 
duty  of  every  Christian,  living  in  communion  with 


136  Our  Children. 

God,  to  bring  up  his  children  so  that  they  shall  be 
Christians  from  the  beginning.  The  grace  of  God  is 
given  just  as  much  during  the  progress  of  education 
and  unfolding  as  afterward,  during  the  process  of 
deliberate  volition  in  adult  life ;  yea,  more  abun- 
dantly. You  cannot,  parents,  bequeath  to  your 
children  any  thing  that  shall  be  equal  to  a  heart  al- 
liance with  God.  It  is  very  well  to  leave  your  child 
property;  it  is  very  well  to  leave  him  an  honored 
name  ;  it  is  very  well  to  see  him  well-connected,  af- 
fianced, and  fill  an  honored  place  in  society.  Sur- 
round him  with  joy ;  scatter  gold  mines  under  his 
feet ;  span  the  crystal  dome  over  his  head ;  send 
the  winged  birds  to  sing  for  him  of  joy  and  peace ; 
but  you  have  done  but  little  for  him,  he  is  but  a 
bankrupt,  unless  there  is  added  to  all  these  an  abid- 
ing faith  in  the  life  to  come,  and  an  abiding  trust 
that  for  him  there  is  a  place  among  the  sons  of  God. 
All  is  for  naught  if  it  does  not  lead  him  to  trust  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  live  for  the  world 
to  come,  and  not  for  the  world  that  now  is.  It  is  a 
very  solemn  thing  to  take  God's  children  and  at- 
tempt to  rear  them  ;  but  it  is  an  awful  thing  to  per- 
vert them  by  bringing  them  up  for  this  world,  and 
utterly  forgetful  of  the  world  that  is  to  come.  We 
are  making  slow  work  at  converting  ;  we  must  begin 
at  the  other  end.  Let  us  begin  now  to  take  care  of 
little  children." 


W/ia^  Human  ParentJiood  sJiould  Signify.    137 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHAT  HUMAN  PARENTHOOD  SHOULD  SIGNIFY. 

T3UT  example  is  the  most  successful  and  Irresisti- 
^-^  ble  teacher.  Parents  who  do  wrong  in  the 
presence  of  their  children  may  teach  them  what  is 
right,  and  for  a  time  compel  obedience;  but  the  evil 
that  is  in  the  example  overbears  and  paralyzes  the 
good  that  is  in  the  instruction  and  the  discipline. 

We  think  too  little  of  what  we  appear  to  be  in 
the  eyes  of  our  little  ones.  For  a  long  time — and 
we  say  it  w^th  reverence,  for  it  is  true — the  parents 
stand,  as  it  were,  in  the  place  of  God  to  their  little 
children.     And  they  are  God's  representatives. 

It  is  a  solemn  thought  that  parents  are  to  serve  a 
typical  purpose.  They  should  be  types — meager  and 
imperfect,  it  may  be,  yet  true  and  not  misleading — 
of  the  character  of  God.  It  is  the  duty  of  us  all  to 
trust,  to  love,  and  obey  God.  But  the  parent  is  the 
first  object  of  faith  to  the  child.  The  parent  is  also 
the  first  object  of  love.  And  to  the  parent  the 
child  yields  its  first  conscious  obedience.  The  par- 
ents are  first  known,  first  trusted,  first  loved,  and 
first  obeyed. 

A  child  should  learn  the  true  conception  of  the 
divine  Fatherhood  from  his  earthly  parents.     God 


138  Our  CiiiLDKEN. 

is  a  governor,  but  he  is  a  father  also  ;  the  parents  are 
also  governors.  Authority,  subordination,  obedience, 
law — these  ideas  first  come  to  a  child  from  its  earth- 
ly parents.     We  speak  of  philosophers  who 

*'  Look  through  Nature  up  to  nature's  God." 

And  shall  it  not  be  so  that  our  children  can  look 
through  us  up  to  the  God  and  Father  of  us  all  ? 

This  is  no  mere  fancy,  for  God  does  reveal  him- 
self to  us  as  Father.  He  is  not  merely  like  a  father 
— he  is  a  Father.  When  Jesus  would  teach  us  the 
true  doctrine  of  prayer  he  appeals  to  the  universal 
instincts  of  childhood  and  parenthood.  It  is  impos- 
sible that  any  child,  any  parent,  should  fail  to  under- 
stand him.  "  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  ;  seek, 
and  ye  shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you  :  for  every  one  that  asketh  rcceiveth  ;  and 
he  that  secketh  findcth  ;  and  to  him  that  knock- 
eth  it  shall  be  opened.  Or  what  man  is  there  of 
you  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread,  will  he  give  him  a 
stone  ?  or  if  he  ask  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent  ? 
If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts 
unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that 
ask  him  !  "  And  in  many  places  in  the  Scriptures 
is  the  great  God  represented  to  us  as  a  father. 
^'  Behold,"  says  St.  John,  *'  what  manner  of  love  the 
Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be 
called  the  sons  of  God."     And  our  Lord  Jesus,  in 


IV/ia^  Human  Parenthood  sJiould  Signify.     1 39 

the  last  words  preceding  his  passion,  said  to  his 
disciples:  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled  :  ye  be- 
lieve in  God,  believe  also  in  me.  In  my  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions.  ...  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you."  St.  Paul,  in  describing  the  relation 
a  true  believer  sustains  to  God,  bases  his  whole 
doctrine  on  the  same  truths :  *'  For  ye  have  not  re- 
ceived the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear ;  but  ye 
have  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we 
cry,  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  wit- 
ness with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of 
God." 

The  following  passage  from  Young's  ''  Christ  of 
History"  will  be  appropriate  and  useful  at  this 
point : — 

"  *  How  is  God  connected  with  me?  How  is  he 
affected  toward  me?'  are  questions  of  infinite  inter- 
est to  a  rational  being.  The  answer  of  the  Teacher 
of  Nazareth  to  these  questions  is  simple  and  ex- 
plicit, and  is  conveyed  in  a  single  word,  a  word  of 
profound  significance  and  surpaasing  tenderness— 
the  word  Father.  To  man  this  term  belongs  em- 
phatically, and  it  is  one  of  the  wealthiest  in  human 
language,  and  men  at  least  can  have  no  difficulty  in 
comprehending  all  its  meaning.  The  relation  which 
it  indicates  has  no  such  interpretation,  among  other 
intelligent  creatures,  as  it  finds  in  this  word.  There 
is  no  fatherhood  or  childhood  am.ong  angels,  no  der- 
ivation of  being  from  one  to  the  other.     But  men 


140  Our  Children. 

on  earth  are  connected  together  in  this  extraordina- 
ry sense ;  and  from  the  imperfect  type  existing 
among  themselves,  they  at  least  are  able  to  rise  to 
the  supreme  reality  in  God.  The  human  spirit  is 
the  offspring,  the  immediate  and  direct  offspring,  of 
the  everliving  Spirit.  It  is  capable  of  bearing  and 
does  bear,  and  it  is  the  only  thing  that  bears  or  is 
capable  of  bearing,  a  resemblance  to  God.  When 
we  have  said  that  God  created  the  heavens,  the 
earth,  and  material  things,  we  have  exhausted  all 
of  which  the  subject  admits.  But  it  is  not  simply 
true  that  he  created  minds  also — He  is  the  Father 
of  minds,  and  of  nothing  else.  .  .  .  God  is  a  King, 
but  he  is  a  Father-king ;  his  subjects  are  his  own 
children,  and  his  government  of  them  in  its  very 
origin,  and  consequently  in  its  essential  spirit,  in  all 
its  laws,  and  in  all  its  acts,  is  strictly  and  only 
parental.  God's  kingdom  is  a  figure,  his  Father- 
hood is  the  profoundest  reality.  He  may  justly,  and 
in  certain  respects,  be  compared  to  a  king;  but  he 
is  a  Father." 

Now  what  idea  of  the  divine  Fatherhood  will 
children  receive  from  parents  who  themselves,  turn- 
ing from  the  good  and  right  way,  follow  the  way  ot 
sin  and  folly  and  men  ?  If  there  is  sin  in  the  par- 
ents ;  if  they  keep  not  the  law  of  love  ;  if  they  fear 
not  God  ;  if  they  walk  not  in  the  way  of  his  com- 
mandments, how  slowly  and  with  what  difficulty 
will  their  children  ever  learn  the  true  idea  of  God! 


W/ia^  Human  Paroithood  sJiotild  Signify.     141 

Because  parents  occupy  the  very  extraordinary  and 
*;acred  relation  that  binds  them  and  their  children 
together — a  relation,  as  we  have  seen,  that  obtains 
nowhere  else  in  the  intelligent  universe — they  do 
most  undoubtedly,  for  a  time  at  least,  stand  in  the 
place  of  God  to  their  children.  They  are  his  repre- 
sentatives. They  are,  therefore,  not  only  to  teach 
the  truth  and  to  drill  their  children  in  duty,  but 
they  themselves  must  illustrate  the  truths  they 
teach  and  exemplify  the  duty  they  enjoin.  By  the 
sobriety,  wisdom,  justice,  truthfulness,  unselfishness, 
patience,  purity,  love,  and  tenderness  of  their  own 
lives,  let  them  interpret  to  the  understanding  and 
the  faith  of  their  children  the  true  conception  of 
God's  fatherhood.  So  far  as  means  are  concerned, 
the  first  revelation  made  to  a  child's  mind  of  the  ex- 
istence and  greatness  of  God  comes  through  its  par- 
ents, and  this  not  so  much  through  what  they  say, 
as  through  the  child's  sense  of  their  greatness  and 
goodness.  "  The  order,"  says  Harris  in  his  "  Patri- 
archy," *'  in  which  the  love  of  the  child  graduates, 
is  from  the  stage  of  instinctive  love  to  moral  affec- 
tion, and  from  this  to  the  love  of  its  heavenly  Par- 
ent. Desirous  as  the  parents  may  be  to  lead  its  af- 
fections up  at  once  to  the  Creator,  the  previous 
stages  of  the  path  must  first  be  passed  through. 
For  awhile  the  maternal  care  is  the  only  Providence 
it  knows ;  and  the  father's  experience  a  world  of 
grand  enterprise,  and  of  power  unlimited.     In  vain 


142  Our  Children. 

it  strives  to  climb  the  height  of  his  knowledge- -his 
virtual   omniscience ;   nor  can   it  conceive  of  a  Di- 
viner guarantee  than  his  promise.     To  see  its  par- 
ents bend  in  worship,  and  to  hear  them  speak  with 
holy  awe  of  their  Father  in  heaven,  is  itself  solemn 
and   suggestive    as   a  ladder  set  up   from  earth  to 
heaven.     The  wise  discipline,  too,  which  leads  the 
parent  kindly  to  repress  its  selfish  desires,  and  con- 
stantly to  aim  at  its  moral  welfare,  invariably  begets 
in  return  the  highest  order  of  filial  love  and  confi- 
dence ;  evincing  the  power  of  the  child  to  discrimi- 
nate between  instinctive  and   moral  affection,  and 
preparing  it   to   embrace   that  heavenly  Parent  of 
whom  the  earthly  is  but  the  imperfect  representa- 
tive.    And  let  the  parents  remark  that,  from  the 
moment  they  begin  to  point  their  child  to  God  as 
an  object  of  reverence  and  love,  they  are  pursuing 
the  certain  course  for  augmenting  its  moral  affection 
for  themselves ;  while  its  intelligent  love  for  them  is 
a  valuable  means  and  a  pledge  for  its  ascending  to 
the  love  of  God.  .  .  .  When  the  human  infant  comes 
into  the  world,  it  resembles  a  temple  on  the  day  of 
opening.     Ten   thousand    objects   are   waiting  and 
eager  to  enter,  but  the  doors  must  first  be  thrown 
open.     One  after  another  they  unfold,  and  in  crowd 
the  throngs.     Day  after  day  they  repeat  their  visit, 
with  multitudes  of  new  faces  added  to  them.     At 
first,  all  are  admitted  without  question,  pass-word, 
or  hinderance.     In  full  faith,  the  soul  is  laid  open, 


W/ia^  Human  Parenthood  should  Signify.     143 

and  the  streams  flow  through  it.  After  awhile,  a 
higher  order  of  applicants  press  for  admission,  and 
the  young  human  being  begins  to  look  round  for 
authority.  Proof  is,  as  yet,  out  of  the  question  ;  the 
highest  proof  is  authority,  and  the  highest  authority 
the  parental.  The  example  of  his  parents  guaran- 
tees alike  his  belief  and  his  conduct.  His  trust  in 
them  becomes  obedience  to  their  injunctions,  and  a 
sense  of  duty  takes  root." 

It  seems  too  plain  a  truth  for  argument,  that  par- 
ents are  under  a  very  great  and  peculiar  obligation 
to  be  holy.  If,  as  we  have  seen,  they  are,  for  a 
time  and  in  some  sense,  in  the  place  of  God  to  their 
children — how  awful  their  responsibility,  how  great 
their  opportunity,  and  how  terrible  their  sin  if  they 
be  unfaithful !  And  yet,  alas !  there  are  parents 
who  reflect  not  God's  but  Satan's  image  upon  the 
hearts  of  their  little  children.  How  sad  and  ruinous 
it  is,  when  parents  who,  of  all  others,  should  "  live, 
and  move,  and  have  their  being"  in  the  midst  of 
holy  influences,  live  under  an  inspiration  of  sin  and 
carnal-mindedness!  How  portentous  of  ruin  to 
both  parents  and  children  ! 

'  Sometimes  God-fearing  parents  are  overwhelmed 
with  a  sense  of  the  responsibilities  of  their  position 
and  they  are  tempted  to  despair,  exclaiming,  with 
painful  consciousness  of  their  lack  of  wisdom  and 
strength,  ''Who  then  is  sufficient  for  these  things?* 

This  we  say  in  answer  and  without  doubt  of  its 


144  Our  Children. 

truth :  Unaided  by  Divine  grace,  unenlightened  by 
Divine  wisdom,  the  great  duties  of  parenthood  can- 
not  be  rightly  and  fully  discharged.  No  ''  rules  " 
for  family  government,  no  set  of  maxims,  no  amount 
of  instruction,  no  vigor  or  regularity  of  drill,  can 
compensate  for  the  lack  of  true  personal  godliness 
in  the  parents.  The  first  condition  of  the  full  and 
successful  discharge  of  our  parental  obligations  is 
devotedness  to  God.  If  we  have  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  if  we  be  led  by  that  spirit,  if  we  be  full  of 
that  spirit,  then  we  have  the  first  and  chief  condi- 
tion of  doing  t/ie  very  best  that  we  can  do. 

Of  course  we  do  not  overlook  or  undervalue  those 
natural  qualities,  as  they  may  be  called,  of  good 
judgment,  patience,  firmness,  justice,  and  benevo- 
lence, that  are  so  needful  in  all  good  family  govern- 
ment, but  we  do  mean  to  say  that  no  excellence  in 
these  qualities  is  sufficient  without  religion,  and 
that  religion  makes  the  best  natural  endowments 
tenfold  more  efficient. 

The  course  of  our  discussion  leads  naturally  to 
three  conclusions  as  to  the  duty  and  work  of  the 
father — the  same  principles  applying  to  the  mother 
also — if  he  is  to  be  what  God  designed  him  to 
be,  a  representative  and  interpreter  of  the  divine 
Fatherhood. 

First.  He  must  know  God's  words  himself. 

Second.  He  must  drill  Jiimself  in  obedience  to 
these  words. 


W/iat  Human  ParcntJiood  should  Signify.     145 

Third.  He  must  be  a  man  oi prayer. 

He  must  knozv  God's  words  himself.  "  These  words, 
which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thine 
heart."  This  goes  before  the  words,  "and  thou 
shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children."  We 
cannot  teach  what  we  do  not  know,  and  we  cannot 
know  what  we  do  not  search  out.  "  Search  the 
Scriptures,"  is  a  Divine  command.  They  "testify" 
of  Christ,  and  in  them  we  find  "  eternal  life."  The 
motive  is  of  the  most  persuasive  and  controlling 
character ;  but  it  is  too  plain  a  question  to  argue 
now.  He  who  does  not  know  that  it  is  his  duty 
to  "search"  a  book  that  God  gave  him  for  his  guid- 
ance through  this  world  to  a  better,  knows  nothing; 
and  argument — how  strong,  wise,  eloquent  soever — 
.  cannot  help  him. 

The  word  of  God  is  to  be  learned  by  earnest,  pa- 
tient, persistent,  prayerful  study,  and  not  otherwise. 
There  is  no  charm  about  the  volume — a  sort  of  bet- 
ter fetish — so  that  keeping  it  about  the  house,  or  on 
the  center-table,  will  make  it  useful.  So  kept  and 
so  abused — for  not  to  use  the  Bible  is  to  abuse  it — 
it  will  do  us  no  more  good  than  any  other  volume. 
A  volume  of  patent-office  reports,  or  census  tables, 
<.)r  of  the  last  century's  almanacs,  or  any  other  dry- 
as -dust  compilation,  will  do  as  much  good  as  an  un- 
used Bible.  An  Egyptian  papyrus,  an  Assyrian 
brick  or  cylinder,  covered  over  with  indecipherable 

hieroglyphics,  would  be  as  useful  as  a  Bible,  though 
10 


146  Our  Children. 

bound  in  embossed  leather  and  clasped  with  gold 
not  read  and  prayed  over. 

It  has  pleased  God,  in  his  gracious  and  wise  prov- 
idence, for  the  good  of  men,  to  secure  the  publica- 
tion of  his  blessed  word  in  many  tongues.  And  it 
is  now  brought  within  the  reach  of  every  person 
who  wishes  to  have  it.  What  a  priceless  privilege 
is  this !  Each  person  may  have,  for  his  own  use,  a 
complete  copy  of  the  sacred  Scriptures.  And  this 
fact  deepens  our  obligation  to  "  search  the  Script- 
ures"— to  know,  to  understand,  to  believe,  to  love, 
and  to  obey  them. 

It  is  the  duty  of  parents,  and  made  their  duty 
by  the  imperative  command  of  God,  to  teach  the 
Scriptures  "  diligently  unto  their  children."  This 
they  cannot  do  without  knowing  the  Scriptures; 
they  cannot  know  them  without  earnestly  studying 
them.  No  imaginable  excuse  for  the  neglect  of 
this  duty  can  be  good.  Does  one  say,  "  I  cannot 
read?"  It  is  his  duty  to  learn.  Does  he  say,  "I 
have  not  time?"  This  is  not  true,  for  he  has  all 
the  time  there  is — twenty-four  hours  in  every  day. 
If  he  has  made  himself  so  busy  with  his  farm,  his 
shop,  his  merchandise,  his  pleasures,  or  his  ambi- 
tion that  he  cannot  find  time  to  study  the  word  of 
God,  then  he  is  too  busy  with  these  things  for  the 
good  of  his  soul  here  or  its  safety  hereafter.  Such 
absorption  in  this  world's  affairs  as  hinders  or  pre- 
vents   the    discharge   of  divinely-appointed    duties 


What  Human  ParcntJwod  shoidd  Signify.     147 

is  not  simply  a  mistake,  an  error,  a  fault — it  is  a 
sin. 

Is  it  the  parent's  duty  to  drill  his  children  in  the 
ways  of  God  ?  Then  he  must  drill  himself.  What 
good  is  done  by  the  drill-sergeant  who  lectures  the 
soldiers  upon  their  unsoldierly  attitudes  and  man- 
agement of  their  arms  when  he  himself  constantly 
does  the  very  things  he  censures  in  them  ?  "  Stand 
erect"  comes  with  poor  grace  from  an  officer  who 
himself  leans  forward  with  drooped  shoulders  and 
listless  air.  Would  we  teach  our  children  patience 
and  drill  them  in  this  great  virtue  ?  Then  we  must 
ourselves  be  patient.  Would  we  have  them  grow 
up  to  be  generous?  We  must  be  generous.  Would 
we  have  them  honest,  truthful,  chaste,  reverent? 
We  must  exemplify  these  virtues.  And  in  every 
case  it  is  so:  we  must  be  ^'ensamples"  to  our  chil- 
dren in  all  good  things.  We  may  indeed  "  point  to 
brighter  worlds,"  but  we  must  also  "  lead  the  way." 
How  wretched  must  be  his  failure  who  assumes  to 
teach  God's  "words"  when  he  has  never  learned 
them,  nor  tried  to  learn  them !  Who  would  drill 
his  children  in  virtues  in  which  he  himself  is  not 
disciplined !  It  cannot  be  that  we  can  teach  our 
children  truths  we  have  not  learned,  or  train  them 
in  those  virtues  which  we  ourselves  do  not  possess. 
If  all  had  to  be  compressed  into  one  sentence, 
one  might  say,  "  If  you  would  do  all  your  duty 
to  your  children,  learn  all  you  can  of  God's  word, 


148  Our  Children. 

and,  in  your  experience,  realize  all  you  can  of  God's 
grace." 

The  true  parent,  who  feels  as  he  ought  his  great 
burden  of  responsibility;  who  understands  that  he 
is,  in  an  important  and  true  sense,  in  the  place  of 
God  to  his  little  children  ;  that  it  is  his  high  and 
sacred  duty  to  show  them  something  of  God's  Fa- 
therhood reflected  in  himself;  who  knows,  also,  that 
to  be  to  his  children  what  he  ought  to  be,  he  must 
not  only  be  a  man  wise  in  the  Scriptures,  but  a  man 
disciplined  in  the  virtues ;  such  a  parent  will  feel 
that,  to  do  and  to  be  all  these  things,  he  must  be  a 
man  of  prayer. 

What  father — what  mother  is  there  who  does 
not  feel  the  need  of  Divine  help?  If  such  there 
be,  failure  is  foredoomed.  Here  many  great,  many 
wise  have  failed.  No  man  can  feel  secure  who, 
like  the  writer,  has  not  yet  fully  solved  the  prob- 
lem and  finished  the  task — whose  children  are  still 
about  him,  with  principles  unfixed,  habits  unset- 
tled, character  unformed.  Many  have  tried  and 
have  failed. 

Shall  we  also  fail?  It  were  better  never  to  have 
been  born  than  to  be  the  father  of  lost  children. 

Praise  be  to  God !  Those  four  blessed  ones  of 
ours  that  were  gathered  to  God  in  the  sweet  inno- 
cence of  infancy,  they,  at  least,  are  safe.  Their  feet 
will  never  slip  ;  they  will  never  go  astray.  No  ship- 
wreck can  await  them;  but  as  to  the  rest- -those  that 


What  Hitman  Parenthood  should  Signify.     149 

God  spares  to  us,  puts  in  our  care  and  keeping,  the 
future — but  we  know  not  the  future. 

Well  may  parents  pray  for  Hght  and  strength, 
and  grace  divine  that  they  may  fill  the  place  God 
called  them  to  fill — do  the  work  he  gave  them  to 
do,  and  be  to  their  children  what  he  intended  them 
to  be — true  teachers  of  righteousness,  and  true  pat- 
terns of  godliness.  He  who  has  succeeded  in  train- 
ing his  children  in  the  way  in  which  they  should  go ; 
who  has  brought  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  ad- 
monition of  the  Lord, — may  not  be  rich  in  gold  or 
great  in  name,  yet  he  deserves,  and  he  will  receive, 
the  congratulations  of  the  wise  and  of  the  good. 
And  him  will  children's  children  rise  up  and  bless. 

But  he  who  has  failed  in  his  office  and  duty  of 
fatherhood ;  who  has  not  taught  God's  words  to 
his  children ;  who  has  not  trained  them  in  the  way 
in  which  they  should  go ;  who  has  not  brought 
them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord, — he  may  be  rich  in  gold  and  great  in  name, 
but  he  has  made  the  worst  failure  a  man  can 
make,  who  himself  escapes  hell,  for  he  has  failed  in 
the  holiest  trust  that  can  be  committed  to  human 
keeping. 

Very  sad  is  the  condition  of  the  father  of  lost 
children.  His  fault  merits  censure,  but  his  wretch- 
edness should  excite  pity.  The  good  and  wise  can- 
not praise  him,  for  he  has  left  undone  the  greatest 
work  that   a  man   .';an  do  in   this  world.     Neither 


150  Our  Children. 

Church  nor  State  can  thank  him,  for  he  has  cursed 
both  by  turning  loose  upon  society  a  race  of  bad 
men  and  women.  His  children  cannot  bless  him  in 
the  gates,  for  all  that  he  has  done  for  them  is  that 
he  has  been  the  means  of  bringing  them  into  one 
bad  world  that  becomes  their  passage  to  a  worse. 


Home  Influence.  151 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

HOME    INFLUENCES. 

\  T  TTIERE  parents  do  their  duty  as  teachers  of 
•  •  God's  "  words  "  and  exempHfiers  of  godliness, 
by  bringing  up  their  children  "  in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord,"  and  where  the  children 
*'  obey  their  parents  in  the  Lord,"  there  grows 
around,  about,  and  within  such  people  that  inde- 
scribable something  we  may  call  a  Christian  Jionie. 
We  propose  in  this  chapter  some  remarks  upon  the 
true  home  as  an  important  element  of  all  high  and 
pure  civilization. 

And  what  is  a  true  home?  That  blessed  reality 
which  this  sweet  word  expresses  is  easily  understood 
when  realized,  but  it  is  incapable  of  a  strict  and  lim- 
ited definition. 

One — the  pure  but  unfortunate  Mrs.  Hemans — - 
who   seems  not   to   have   known   the  reality,  asks, 

"What  is  home,  and  where,  but  with  the  loving?" 

We  may  well  believe  that  where  the  "loving"  are 
not  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  true  home.  And 
this  suggests  one  of  the  most  blessed  facts  of  human 
experience :  it  is  in  the  power  of  true  love  to  over- 
come all  external  disadvantages,  and  to  create  happy 
homes  in  the  midst  of  poverty  and  hardship.     We 


152  Our  Children. 

will  find  them  all  over  the  world — under  arctic  skies 
as  well  as  in  the  land  of  flowers — in  stately  palaces 
and  lowly  cabins — in  crowded  cities  and  on  the 
border  of  deserts.  But  all  homes  are  not  alike. 
Some  are  better  than  others.  Some  contain  more 
of  the  elements  that  are  necessary  to  constitute  a 
perfect  home. 

Fine-spun  theories  would  be  out  of  place  in  our 
argument  and  tedious  description  would  be  unprofit- 
able. We  may  speak  very  briefly  of  a  few  general 
facts  and  principles  which,  however  simple  and  easy 
of  comprehension,  are  yet  too  often  overlooked  and 
undervalued.  One  thing  to  be  considered  thought- 
fully by  us  all,  and  too  little,  we  venture  to  think, 
regarded  in  our  country,  is  this  :  a  perfect  home 
cannot  exist  without  a  ''  local  habitation  and  a 
name."  Homes  are  not  nomadic.  The  love  of  an 
Arab  for  his  tent  and  of  a  sailor  for  the  sea  are  but 
poor  substitutes  for  those  divinely  implanted  affec- 
tions which,  ivy-like,  grow  from  the  roots  and  twine 
themselves  about  the  roof-tree  of  a  true  Christian 
home.  No  homeless  man  or  family,  no  wanderers 
from  place  to  place,  can  become  all  that  with  a 
home  they  might  have  been. 

Again,  and  of  no  small  importance,  if  we  are  to 
have  perfect  homes,  it  is  well  that  each  family  have 
a  proprietary  right  in  its  place  of  residence.  This 
sentiment  has  nothing  in  common  with  that  agra- 
rian  wickedness  which   has    so   often    proposed   to 


Home  Influences,  153 

rob  the  industrious  and  frugal  to  bolster  up  the  idle 
and  wasteful,  and  that  has  sometimes  blotted  out,  in 
fire  and  blood,  the  homes  of  the  good  because  it 
could  not  bear  the  sight  of  their  happiness.  Of 
communism — a  fanaticism  whose  zeal  for  equality 
is  born  of  selfishness,  whose  methods  are  lunatic, 
whose  inspiration  is  devilish,  and  whose  experiments 
have  been  only  and  utterly  disastrous — the  Christian 
home  is  at  once  the  antagonist,  the  preventive,  and 
the  cure. 

If  we  cannot  have  a  home  in  our  own  right,  our 
misfortune  cannot  justify  envy  of  the  more  favored, 
or  excuse  impatience  or  repining  at  our  lot  in  life. 
But  whoever  has,  or  expects  to  have,  a  family,  should 
cherish,  earnestly  and  religiously,  the  desire  and  the 
purpose  to  have  a  hearth-stone  of  his  own.  It  is  a 
very  great  blessing  if  a  man's  home  be  in  his  own 
house,  and  especially  if  it  be  his  as  the  reward  of 
honest  toil.  The  man  who  has  won  a  home  for  him- 
self and  his  family  as  the  fruit  of  manly  labor  has 
achieved  a  great  and  true  success. 

As  it  seems  to  us,  much  depends  on  the  people's 
having  homes — far  more  than  most  persons  seem  to 
suppose.  That  government  is  wisest  and  best  that 
multiplies,  fosters,  and  preserves  the  home  of  its 
people.  After  all,  if  the  object  of  government 
should  be  to  secure  "  the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number,"  should  not  the  homes  of  the  peo- 
ple be  the   chief  concern   of  Government?      Laws 


154  Our  Children. 

and  administrations  that  hinder  the  people  from 
creating  homes  are  bad,  and  in  the  long  run  will, 
as  they  should,  prove  themselves  self-destructive. 
There  are,  we  may  be  sure,  other  and  better  meas- 
ures of  a  nation's  greatness  than  the  splendor  and 
populousness  of  its  cities,  or  the  extent  of  its  com- 
merce ;  there  are  better  tests  of  good  government 
than  the  power  of  its  navies,  or  the  number  and 
valor  of  its  soldiers.  It  does  seem  too  plain  to  need 
evidence  or  argument,  that  the  nation  which  has  the 
largest  number  of  happy  Christian  homes  is  the 
most  prosperous — as  determined  by  every  measure 
of  true  prosperity — and  that  the  government  which 
most  effectually — by  the  wisdom  of  its  laws  and  the 
righteousness  of  their  administration — by  the  con- 
scientiousness with  which  it  confines  itself  to  its  le- 
gitimate sphere  and  keeps  itself  from  arbitrary  inter- 
ference in  the  sphere  of  individual  and  family  life — 
secures  happy.  Christian  homes  to  the  people,  is  the 
best  government.  For  the  real  powers  that  form 
nations — shaping  their  history  and  determining  their 
destiny — are  social ;  for  as  communities  make  na- 
tions, families  make  communities. 

As  we  have  seen,  in  the  earlier  discussions  of  this 
work,  the  State,  as  well  as  the  Church,  has  its  foun- 
dations in  the  family.  If  the  State  forgets  this,  we 
have  anarchy;  when  the  Church  forgets  it,  it  is 
apostasy.  Having  homes — and  homes  that  are  in 
their  own  houses — helps  to  make  people  orderly  and 


Home  hifluences.  155 

law-abiding,  industrious  and  virtuous,  conservative 
and  patriotic,  and  so  builds  up  the  State ;  having 
homes  helps  also  to  make  them  religious,  and  so,, 
handing  down  the  truth  of  God  from  generation  to 
generation,  according  to  the  chosen  plan  of  heaven, 
preserves,  extends,  and  perpetuates  the  Church. 

The  importance  of  this  whole  subject,  as  related 
to  the  individual,  the  family,  the  community,  the 
Church  and  the  State,  will  appear  if  we  consider 
the  strength  of  our  home  instincts  and  affections, 
the  controlling  power  of  their  influence  upon  chil- 
dren, and,  therefore,  their  determining  power  in 
molding  the  society  of  the  future.  No  affections 
are  so  universal,  so  intense,  so  enduring  as  those 
which  cluster  about  our  homes.  Their  existence 
and  influence  do  not  depend  upon  circumstances  of 
age,  or  character,  or  position.  These  may  modify 
them,  as  to  their  intensity  and  character,  but  they 
survive  them  all. 

Who  forgets  his  home  ?  Not  the  wanderer.  There 
is  Jacob  fleeing  from  the  face  of  wrathful  Esau,  and 
during  long  years  of  wasting  toil  with  Laban  the 
Syrian  clinging  but  to  this  fond  hope :  "  So  that  I 
come  again  to  my  father's  house  in  peace."  The 
old,  whose  feet  may  even  now  be  pressing  the  bor- 
der-land between  two  worlds,  do  not  forget.  How 
dear,  sainted  grandmother  used  to  forget  recent 
events  and  new  acquaintances,  but  never  forget  the 
green  meadows,  nor  the  spring  that  went  laughing 


156  Our  Children. 

from  the  foot  Df  the  hill — the  rose-tree  in  the  gar- 
den, nor  the  old  oaks  in  the  yard,  with  all  the  pre- 
cious memories  of  her  childhood's  home  in  grand  old 
Virginia,  away  back  in  the  time  when  Washington 
and  his  barefooted  heroes  were  braving  the  hard- 
ships of  Valley  Forge,  and  another  hero,  as  great 
and  noble  as  the  Father  of  his  country,  our  apostolic 
Asbury,  was  traversing  a  thinly-settled  continent, 
preaching  Christ  to  the  people  and  founding  a 
Church  for  the  ages — a  messenger  of  peace  and  a 
herald  of  salvation. 

When  David  was  returning  to  Jerusalem  after  the 
defeat  of  rebellious  Absalom,  Barzillai,  an  aged  Gil- 
eadite,  who  had  showed  the  king  and  his  band  of 
faithful  followers  much  kindness  the  day  they  fled 
before  the  face  of  the  traitor,  joined  him  on  his  re- 
turn, and  accompanied  him  with  an  escort  of  honor 
part  of  the  way  to  his  capital.  Grateful  David 
begged  the  old  man  to  go  on  with  him  to  Jerusalem 
and  promised  to  reward  him  like  a  king.  Barzillai's 
reply  speaks  a  language  that  all  hearts  will  under- 
stand :  "  Let  thy  servant,  I  pray  thee,  turn  back 
again,  that  I  may  die  in  mine  own  city,  and  be 
buried  by  the  grave  of  my  father  and  of  my  mother.'* 

Nor  does  the  prodigal,  who  has  "  wasted  his  sub- 
stance with  riotous  living,"  forget.  The  remem- 
brance of  his  ''  father's  house  "  brought  penitential 
tears  to  eyes  unused  to  weep,  and  the  light  of  life  to 
a  spirit  that  had  long  wandered  in  darkness.     "  And 


Home  Influences.  157 

when  he  came  to  himself,  he  said,  How  many  hired 
servants  of  my  father's  have  bread  enough  and  to 
spare,  and  I  perish  with  hunger  !  I  will  arise  and 
go  to  my  father." 

Disaster  cannot  destroy  the  power  of  this  sacred 
instinct  and  affection.  See  the  crew  of  the  ''Ad- 
vance " — with  brave  and  true  Dr.  Kane — blocked  in 
by  Arctic  ice  during  the  dreary  darkness  of  two 
polar  winters.  See  them  fighting  against  their  fate 
— cheerful  and  brave  when  life  had  become  a  bur- 
den— or,  steadily  though  painfully,  dragging  their 
little  boats  over  the  ice,  or  working  their  way 
among  the  dissolving  ''  floes,"  over  a  thousand 
miles  of  frozen  and  stormy  sea.  And  what,  next 
to  the  grace  of  God,  sustained  them  ?  They  thought 
and  talked  of  their  homes  during  all  their  waking 
hours,  and  dreamed,  when  they  slept  for  an  hour 
in  the  shadow  of  icebergs  that  seemed — so  white 
and  pitiless  were  they — to  mock  their  desolation, 
that  they  were  at  home  again,  while  they  talked  in 
their  sleep  joyful  responses  to  the  welcome  of  wives 
and  the  prattle  of  children.  True  to  the  life — as  all 
good  hearts  must  feel  —  is  Tennyson's  picture  of 
Enoch  Arden,  cast  upon  an  island  and  left  alone,  in 
the  wide  Pacific,  far  from  England  and  his  love  foi 
long  and  dreary  years. 

*'  There  often,  as  he  watched,  or  seemed  to  watch, 
So  still,  the  golden  lizard  on  him  paused, 
A  phantom,  made  of  many  phantoms,  moved 


158  Our  Children. 

Before  him,  haunting  him,  or  he  himself 
Moved  haunting  people,  things  and  places  known 
Far  in  a  darker  isle  beyond  the  line  ; 
The  babes,  their  babble,  Annie,  the  small  house, 
The  climbing  street,  the  mill,  the  leafy  lanes, 
The  peacock-yewtree,  and  the  lonely  Hall, 
The  horse  he  drove,  the  boat  he  sold,  the  chill 
November  dawns  and  dewy-glooming  downs, 
The  gentle  shower,  the  smell  of  dying  leaves. 
And  the  low  moan  of  leaden-colored  seas." 

Affections  like  these — so  universal,  so  intense,  so 
indestructible — must  be  divinely  implanted.  They 
are  intended  to  exercise  a  controlling  influence  in 
molding  human  character.  In  shaping  the  destiny 
of  individuals  and  of  society  they  are  all  but  omnip- 
otent. Every  thing  that  relates  to  them,  that  can 
regulate  or  pervert  them,  is  of  the  last  importance  to 
us  all.  And  shall  powers  like  these  be  overlooked, 
or  undervalued,  or  misunderstood,  in  our  estimate 
of  the  creative,  regulative,  and  regenerative  forces 
that  are  to  form  or  to  restore  society?  Shall  we 
regulate  and  utilize  them  according  to  the  dictates 
of  sound  reason  and  of  divine  inspiration,  or  leave 
them  to  accident,  or  surrender  them  to  caprice? 
Who  does  not  know  that  the  future  destiny  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  State  is  now  being  woven  in  the 
noiseless  but  unresting  looms  of  the  family  and  the 
home?  The  family,  not  the  fates,  determine  desti- 
ny. The  destiny  of  a  people  is  not  settled  by  the 
defeat  of  one  great  political  party  or  the  triumph  of 
another— by  presidents   or  Congress  —  but   by  the 


Home  Influ€7iccs.  159 

powers  that  sway  their  scepter  about  the  hreside — 
by  those  influences  that  shape  and  fix  the  character 
of  Httle  children. 

We  count  it  a  benefaction  to  the  race  when  some 
gifted  and  patient  man  shows  us  how  to  control  and 
employ  more  perfectly  the  great  powers  of  nature. 
We  build  monuments  to  Franklin  and  Morse  for 
telling  us  what  the  lightning  is  and  for  making  it 
the  obedient  servant  of  our  wants.  We  call  him  a 
benefactor  who  develops  a  new  industry;  we  offer 
rewards  and  hold  expositions  to  encourage  inven- 
tions. If  one  can  show  us  how  to  be  rich  and  great 
and  prosperous,  we  call  him  wise,  bless  him  as  a 
friend,  and  crown  him  with  honors.  But  is  there 
not  something  more  important  to  us  than  any  or 
all  of  these  things  ?  For  what  are  the  influences 
that  make  us  all  what  we  are?  that  make,  or  mar, 
our  mortal  and  immortal  fortunes  ?  What  are  the 
influences  that  form  and  determine  the  character 
and,  therefore,  the  destiny  of  our  children  ?  The 
silent  but  potent  energies  that  originate  in  the  fam- 
ily relation — intertwisted  with  all  the  ties  that  bind 
us  together — that  begin  their  work  with  the  first 
motherly  caress  that  soothes  a  baby's  cry,  that  work 
on  through  all  changes  of  condition  and  that  leave 
us  not  till  we  have  left  this  world— if  indeed  they  do 
not  continue  with  us  forever — these  have  made  us 
what  we  are,  these  will  determine  what  our  children 
shall  be. 


i6o  Our  Children. 

We  do  well  to  honor  the  great  and  unselfish  pa- 
triots, like  the  Prince  of  Orange,  for  whom  "  little 
children  cried  in  the  streets,"  when  he  died  ;  like  our 
own  Washington,  whom  all  good  men  loved  while  he 
hved,  and  whom  all  men  praised  when  he  was  dead. 
And  we  do  well  to  honor  the  great  reformers — like 
Luther,  and  Knox,  and  Wesley,  and  others  of  kin- 
dred spirit — ''  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy  "-- 
whose  courage  and  faith  delivered  the  Church  in  the 
days  of  darkness  and  danger,  or  led  the  way  to  new 
triumphs  of  the  truth.  How  much  the  world  owes 
them  eternity  alone  will  reveal. 

But  if  it  shall  be  the  will  of  heaven  to  give  us  a 
man  or  woman  who  will  read  aright  the  purpose 
of  God  in  instituting  the  family ;  who  will  fully 
understand  why  in  a  world  exposed  to  temptation, 
under  the  curse  of  sin,  and  that  must  be  redeemed 
to  be  saved,  it  pleased  God  not  to  people  it  as  he 
did  heaven  with  angels  by  direct  creations — so  that 
there  is  no  marriage,  nor  fatherhood,  nor  mother- 
hood, nor  childhood,  nor  kinship  among  them  all,  but 
rather,  by  the  births  of  generation  after  generation, 
making  children  dependent  on  their  parents  during 
many  helpless  years,  segregating  the  population  of 
the  earth  into  families  and  yet  binding  them  all  to- 
gether, by  ten  thousand  ties  that  make  the  race  but 
one;  who  will,  by  the  earnest  study  of  God's  word, 
and  by  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  under- 
stand  all   these  things  and  then  teach  us  the  full 


Home  Influeytces.  i6i 

measure  of  our  responsibilities ;  who  will  not  only 
teach  us,  but  arouse  our  conscience  to  a  full  sense  of 
our  obligation  to  train  our  children  for  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  Jesus ;  who  will  also  show  us  how  we 
may  most  perfectly  discharge  our  sacred  family  du- 
ties— that  man,  or  that  woman,  will  we  hail  as  chief 
among  prophets  and  apostles  who  have  blessed  the 
world.  And  if  such  a  teacher  and  guide  could  in- 
duce all  fathers  and  mothers  to  employ  the  great 
powers  of  the  family  and  the  home,  as  God  wills 
them,  to  be  used,  he  would  reform  the  world. 
11 


i62  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE     CHRISTIAN     HOME. 

GOD  holds  parents  responsible  for  the  influen- 
ces exerted  by  the  homes  they  originate. 

To  begin  with  the  best  understood  of  our  parent- 
al duties,  we  may  mention  what  does  not  need  dis- 
cussion : — 

First.  Parents  are  to  provide  for  the  maintenance 
and  comfort  of  their  children.  It  is  theirs  to  pro- 
vide food,  and  raiment,  and  shelter.  Who  does  not 
— if  Paul  be  authority — "  hath  denied  the  faith,  and 
is  worse  than  an  infidel." 

Secondly.  The  obligation  to  provide  for  the  intel- 
lectual wants  of  our  children  is  as  manifest  and 
binding  as  the  obligation  to  feed  them,  and  it  is  en- 
forced by  higher  motives.  Some  day  this  will  be 
understood,  and  the  father  who  can,  but  will  not, 
educate  his  children,  will  feel  himself  disgraced. 
IIow  blind,  how  foolish,  how  cruel,  how  unjust,  is 
that  father  who  can  educate  his  children  and  will 
not — who  refuses  them  opportunity  to  get  them- 
selves ready  for  the  duties  of  manhood  !  And  it  is 
all  the  worse  since  the  opportunities  of  youth  come 
but  once.  As  Carlyle  says,  in  one  place,  ''  Nothing 
ever  happens  but  once  in  this  world.     What   I  do 


The  Christian  Home.  163 

now  I  do  once  and  forever.     It  is  over,  it  is  gone, 
with  all  its  eternity  of  solemn  meaning." 

Denying  a  child  the  opportunity  of  education  is 
worse  than  ordinary  robbery,  for  it  is  a  wrong  that 
can  never  be  atoned  for.  It  robs  the  child  of  his 
seed-time,  and  limits,  mars,  and  blights  his  harvest 
No  gifts  of  gold  or  land  can  atone  for  such  a  wrong 
It  is  a  personal  injury,  inflicted  on  the  helpless,  and 
by  the  hand  that  of  all  others  owed  blessing  and  not 
blighting. 

The  writer  at  this  point,  in  place  of  argument,  will 
tell  what  he  saw  some  years  ago. 

Attending  a  Quarterly  Conference,  it  so  happened 
that  we  spent  two  nights  and  a  day  with  a  brother 
whose  name  did  not  suit  him,  and  so  we  will  call 
him  Brother  Blind.  He  was  a  hard  worker,  and 
this  was  creditable.  His  wife  was  like-minded  with 
himself.  Their  industry  and  economy  had  brought 
them  more  than  competence.  Brother  Blind  owned 
a  beautiful  and  fertile  farm,  and,  as  we  rode  to  his 
house  from  the  railroad,  he  explained  to  us  how  he 
proposed,  during  the  year,  to  buy  more  land  that 
^'  lay  convenient."  There  was  one  daughter  and 
three  sons  in  the  family;  the  eldest  boy  about  six- 
teen years  old.  They  were  exceptionally  bright 
and  well-formed.  The  children  were  well-behaved, 
quiet,  and  mannerly,  giving  marked  attention  to 
all  that  was  said  in  their  presence.  All  day  Satur- 
day the  rain  poured  down,  and  we  were  hindered 


164  Our  Children. 

from  going  to  Church.  After  reading  our  Bible  a 
long  while,  and  after  spending  an  hour  or  two  in 
writing  for  one  of  our  Church  papers,  we  began  an 
exploration  of  our  brother's  house  to  see  what 
books  he  had.  Here  follows  the  inventory:  A  Bible, 
a  worn  hymn  book,  one  very  old  copy  of  a  '*  Life  of 
George  Whitefield"  with  another's  name  in  it,  a  few 
spelling  books,  primary  geographies,  and  such  like, 
and  one  copy  of  the  *'  Patent-Office  Reports,"  sent 
by  some  congressman,  who  hoped  to  get  his  vote  in 
the  next  election. 

There  was  07ie  other  book  in  the  house,  hid  be- 
hind some  slates  and  school  books.  It  was  a  Mor- 
mon novel,  full  of  obscene  pictures  and  vulgar 
stories.  This  last  the  boys  had  borrowed.  The 
boys  we  pitied — the  father  we  blamed.  The  boys 
were  quick-witted  and  hungry  to  read,  and  this 
swine's-food,  from  the  tree  of  Satanic  literature,  had 
fallen  into  their  hands.  So  far  as  we  know  Brother 
Blind  kept  on  hoarding  to  buy  more  land.  And  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  his  poor  boys,  having  tasted 
the  poisonous  fruit,  went  on  eating  till  all  purity 
and  honor  perished  out  of  their  souls.  It  will  be 
an  infinite  mercy  and  a  miracle  of  grace  if  that  vul- 
gar and  accursed  novel  of  Mormon  beastliness  do 
not  yet  damn  the  children  of  this  blind  father,  who 
hoarded  money  to  buy  land  he  did  not  need,  who 
kept  his  children  from  learning  more  than  enough 
to  "cipher  out"  the  value  of  their  crops,  who  denied 


The  Christian  Hoim,  1 65 

them  the  pleasure  and  profit  of  good  books  and  of 
judiciously  selected  newspapers.  Surely  it  would 
be  pardonable  to  feel  contempt  for  the  stinginess, 
as  it  would  be  a  duty  to  commiserate  the  blindness 
of  such  a  father. 

Thirdly.  Besides  providing  for  the  general  intel- 
lectual training  and  furnishing  of  our  children  to 
the  best  of  our  ability,  there  are  (Esthetic  wants — 
emotions  of  beauty,  sentiments  of  taste  to  be  pro- 
vided for.  These  wants,  and  the  capacities  they 
imply,  are  common,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  to  us 
all.  God  gave  to  the  human  spirit  the  power  to 
recognize  and  enjoy  all  beautiful  things,  as  he  gave 
it  the  power  to  recognize  and  love  all  loveliness 
To  say  to  this  divinely  implanted  instinct  of  beauty 
that  it  shall  close  its  eyes  to  all  beautiful  things,  is 
to  speak  treason  to  one  of  our  purest  and  noblest 
inspirations.  God,  who  made  the  eye  for  the  light 
and  the  light  for  the  eye,  has  given  to  man,  whom 
he  made  in  his  own  image,  the  sense  of  beauty,  and, 
in  order  to  satisfy  it,  has  scattered  beautiful  things 
in  rich  profusion  all  around  him. 

Ruskin  has  truly  taught  us,  that  where  we  find  in 
the  creation  one  adjustment  for  simple  utility,  we 
find  twenty  for  beauty.  Did  not  God  himself  raise 
up,  from  the  midst  of  his  brethren,  the  beauty-see- 
ing and  skillful  Bezaleel  to  devise  rare  ornaments 
for  the  tabernacle?  And  does  not  the  Lord  him- 
self declare  that  they  had  their  place  in  the  appoint- 


i66  Our  Children. 

ments  of  his  earthly  habitation  "  for  glory  and  for 
beauty?"  Is  not  the  Church  commended  for  her 
beauty?  The  psalmist  sings,  "Beautiful  for  situa- 
tion, the  joy  of  the  whole  earth,  is  Mount  Zion,  on 
the  sides  of  the  north,  the  city  of  the  great  King.  .  .  . 
Out  of  Zion,  the  perfection  of  beauty,  God  hath 
shined."  And  St.  John,  In  the  visions  of  the  apoc- 
alypse, describes  the  New  Jerusalem,  that  he  saw 
"  descending  out  of  heaven  from  God,"  as  radiant 
with  a  Divine  beauty  that  could  not  be  told.  We 
do  not  read  the  book  of  nature  or  the  book  of 
revelation  aright,  if  we  fail  to  see  something  of  the 
infinite  pains  that  our  gracious  God  has  taken  to 
lift  us  above  all  unworthy  things  by  filling  earth 
and  heaven  with  beauty.  Beautiful  things  are  min- 
isters of  grace,  if  we  will  only  receive  them. 

That  we  are  beginning  to  understand  these  things, 
that  we  are  seeking.  In  some  small  degree,  to  provide 
for  the  aesthetic  wants  of  our  children,  may  be  taken 
as  an  evidence  of  progress  in  our  theories  of  educa- 
tion. If,  sometimes,  a  taste  for  beautiful  things  is 
gratified  unwisely ;  if,  sometimes,  devotion  to  art 
has  been  found  in  unnatural  and  unholy  alliance 
with  materialistic  unbelief;  and  if,  too  often,  the 
great  masters  of  art,  with  eyes  open  to  all  natural, 
but  closed  to  all  spiritual  beauty,  have  lent  their 
genius  to  prostitute  painting  and  sculpture  to  grati- 
fy the  prurient  tastes,  and  to  pamper  the  licentious 
habits    of   indolent    and    overfed    communities — all 


TJic  Cliristiaii  Home.  167 

these  things  only  show  how  needful  it  is  that  Chris- 
tian education  should  be  wise  and  liberal  enough  to 
so  provide  for  these  wants,  and  to  so  regulate  these 
tastes,  that  our  inborn  love  of  beautiful  things  shall 
lead  us  to  seek,  with  quenchless  desire,  that  beauty 
of  which  all  other  is  but  the  shadowy  and  imperfect 
symbol,  "  the  beauty  of  holiness." 

Fourthly.  It  may  be  useful,  in  this  connection,  to 
consider  briefly  another  important,  but  often  over- 
looked duty — the  duty  of  providing  for  the  emotional 
wants  of  our  children.  In  common  speech  the  heart 
represents  the  affections.  Now,  the  heart  is  capable 
of  culture ;  its  sympathies  and  affections  may  be 
educated.  Love  is  as  capable  of  culture  as  is  the 
memory  or  the  imagination.  So  is  every  passion, 
good  or  bad,  that  belongs  to  our  nature.  In  the 
very  constitution  of  our  complex  nature  God  has 
provided  for  this,  making  every  power — physical, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual — capable  of  culture,  and, 
for  its  true  development  and  highest  uses,  depend- 
ent on  culture.  The  athlete,  who  seeks  the  utmost 
development  of  physical  strength,  understands  this 
law,  as  related  to  the  lower  part  of  our  nature.  To 
accomplish  his  purpose,  he  requires  appropriate 
food  and  exercise,  and  he  will  fail  if  either  condition 
be  lacking.  That  the  intellect  is  capable  of  culture, 
and  that  the  conditions  of  its  normal  and  vigorous 
growth  are  food  and  exercise,  appropriate  to  its  na- 
ture and  wants,  has  long  been  unquestioned.     Out 


i6S  Our  Children 

of  the  recognition  of  this  truth  have  grown  the 
world's  schemes  of  education  ;  which,  let  us  hope, 
the  experience  of  ages  is  helping  us  to  improve,  and 
which,  if  we  are  ever  to  improve,  we  will  acknowl- 
edge to  be  very  far  from  perfection. 

And  that  wonderful  thing — defying  analysis,  and 
impatient  alike  of  the  rigid  formulas  of  logic  and  of 
the  subtle  distinctions  of  philosophy — the  human 
heart,  with  all  that  is  highest  and  deepest  in  its 
hopes  and  fears,  its  joys  and  sorrows,  its  loves  and 
hates,  its  good  and  bad,  is  capable  of  culture.  And 
the  conditions  of  its  culture  are  not  unlike  the  laws 
of  bodily  and  mental  growth,  but  more  manifold 
and  complicated  in  their  relations,  and  more  diffi- 
cult, perhaps  only  because  less  understood,  in  their 
application.  The  possibility  and  desirableness,  nay, 
necessity  of  heart  culture,  the  Bible  teaches.  Sound 
reason  and  experience  confirm  and  illustrate  the 
truth  of  the  doctrine.  Those  spiritual  qualities 
which,  on  the  one  hand,  as  the  "  fruits  of  the  Spirit," 
determine  and  measure  our  resemblance  to  God, 
and,  on  the  other,  as  the  *'  works  of  the  flesh,"  show 
our  estrangement  from  him — all  these  come  under 
the  general  law  of  culture  and  development  that 
finds,  on  the  spiritual  side  of  our  nature,  its  widest 
and  most  potential  reign. 

These  views  do  not  contravene,  in  the  least  de- 
gree, the  evangelical  doctrine  that  all  good  is  the 
''gift  of  God,"  and  all  grace  the  "  fruit  of  the  Spirit.'' 


The  Christian  Home.  169 

They  recognize  this  truth,  and  find  in  its  blessed 
reality  all  that  is  bright  and  hopeful  in  our  never- 
ending  conflict  with  the  "powers  of  darkness."  The 
truth  is,  co-operation  with  God  is  the  condition  of 
all  spiritual  growth,  and  no  heart  can  be  truly  edu- 
cated, its  powers  led  out  into  harmonious  develop- 
ment, its  noblest  possibilities  of  blessedness  realized, 
that  is  a  stranger  to  God  and  to  the  experience  of 
his  grace. 

How  important— how  infinitely  important — is  the 
heart-education  of  our  children !  But  how  few  con- 
sider this,  or  understand  it,  or  strive,  or  pray  that 
the  great  duty  may  be  performed — the  great  result 
accomplished  !  And  yet,  the  most  important  edu- 
cation possible  to  our  probationary  existence  is  the 
education  of  the  heart !  We  do  not  mean  only  the 
conversion  of  our  children,  but  what  we  have  said, 
their  heart-education — their  heart-culture.  Alas  ! 
there  is  sO  much  yet  to  be  learned  by  those  of  us 
whose  ofifice  it  is  to  teach. 

We  may  nconclude  this  chapter  with  a  few  remarks 
concerning  some  of  the  important  ends  which  par- 
ents, with  ceaseless  endeavor,  should  strive,  in  the 
use  of  all  right  means,  to  realize  in  the  sphere  of 
the  Christian  home. 

We  must  make  our  homes  Jiappy,  Fine,  or  luxuri- 
ous, they  may  not,  need  not  be,  but  happy  they 
must  be,  at  whatever  cost.  Nor  gold,  nor  power, 
nor  fame,  can  buy  or  command  a  substitute  for  this. 


lyn  Our  Children. 

If  home-happiness  could  be  bought  hke  estates,  the 
gold  of  all  the  Rothschilds  would  be  a  poor  price  to 
pay  for  this  inestimable  blessing.  The  lack  of  it  is 
sorrow  upon  sorrow,  and  woe  upon  woe.  The  lack 
of  it  makes  aching  hearts,  that  all  the  pleasures  and 
riches  and  honors  in  the  world  cannot  soothe.  O,  it 
is  mockery,  delusion,  shame,  and  madness  when 
husbands  and  fathers  turn  from  their  homes  to  seek 
satisfaction  in  the  glitter  of  gold,  the  charms  of 
power,  the  fascinations  of  strange  and  unhallowed 
pleasures  ;  when  wives  and  mothers,  ignorant  of  the 
true  glory  and  blessedness  of  their  lives,  forgetful 
of  the  holiest  of  all  the  holy  duties  of  womanhood, 
and  recreant  to  the  most  sacred  trusts  God  ever 
committed  to  human  hands,  leave  the  pure  delights 
that  make  every  true  home  a  ''  Paradise  Regained," 
and  seek  contentment  in  the  whirl  and  frivolity  of 
capricious  fashion  ;  when  sons  and  daughters  find, 
in  the  revelry  of  the  outside  world,  attractions  that 
outbid  the  endearments  of  home. 

Passing  through  the  streets  of  a  Southern  city  one 
day  we  saw  a  poor  laboring  man  lift  up  his  little 
girl,  as  he  passed  out  of  the  gate,  and  kiss  her  a 
kind  good-bye.  That  was  the  best  thing  in  his 
whole  day's  work,  although  he  knew  it  not. 

We  parents  should  labor  and  pray  to  make  the 
"father's  house"  the  last  place  our  children  wish  to 
leave,  and  the  place  where  they  would  like  to  die. 
Let  it  be  to  our  children  so  happy  a  place  that  it 


The  Christian  Home.  171 

shall  haunt  their  latest  dreams ;  that  its  sweet  tones 
shall  sound  in  their  hearts  when  they  are  aw^ay  at 
school,  or  gone  out  from  us  into  the  wide  world  be- 
yond ;  that  its  blessed  memories,  following  them 
through  the  smiling  valleys  of  their  prosperity  and 
along  the  rough  paths  of  their  adversity,  shall  bring 
them  back  to  us  when  sorrow  has  bowed  them 
down,  or  temptation  overtaken  them.  He  whose 
heart  is  stayed  in  the  sweet  charities  and  holy  faith 
of  a  happy  Christian  home  may  have  many  sor- 
rows and  disappointments,  but  he  cannot  be  wholly 
crushed  by  adversity.  He  may  be  ''  troubled  on 
every  side,"  yet  he  will  not  ''be  distressed;"  he 
may  be  "  perplexed,"  but  he  will  not  be  ''  in  de- 
spair;" he  may  be  "persecuted,"  yet  he  cannot  be 
*'  forsaken  ;  "  he  may  be  "  cast  down,"  yet  he  cannot 
be  "  destroyed." 

Again,  and  advancing  our  argument  to  a  higher 
place,  we  must  make  our  homes  sacred.  That  they 
are  cultivated  and  happy  is  not  enough  ;  to  be  per- 
fect they  must  be  sacred.  And  a  Christian  home  is 
sacred,  for  it  is  a  dwelling  place  of  God.  If  we  dig 
among  the  ruins  of  the  dead  and  buried  cities  of  the 
ancients,  we  will  find  memorials  of  their  household 
worship.  Even  they  had  their  household  gods — 
even  they  had  some  sort  of  religion.  But  we  do 
not  want  such  homes  as  these,  or  as  any  of  the 
modern  substitutes  which  are  proposed  in  the  place 
of  true  Christian  homes.     Christianity,  not  the  rites 


172  Our  Children. 

of  pagan  idolatry ;  the  knowledge  of  God,  not  the 
discoveries  of  science ;  religion,  not  the  charms  of 
poetry,  or  the  refinements  of  art ;  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
within  us,  and  the  truth  of  Jesus  making  us  free 
from  sin,  and  not  what  is  called  the  progress  of  civ- 
ilization, can  make  our  homes  sacred.  Christianity 
only,  but  Christianity  fully,  meets  the  highest  and 
deepest  wants  of  our  nature.  All  the  evil  that  is  in 
us,  it  can  take  away ;  all  the  good  we  are  capable  of, 
it  can  implant  and  nurture.  The  gospel  plan  of  life 
is  divinely  perfect,  for  it  comprehends  and  provides 
for  all  the  wants  and  exigencies  of  our  race  in  this 
world  and  in  the  world  to  come.  And  this  blessed 
Gospel  of  Christ  must  be  the  law  of  life  to  the  fam- 
ily, as  well  as  to  the  individual.  Husbands  and 
wives,  parents  and  children,  brothers  and  sisters, 
must  learn  from  Christ  the  duties  of  their  place,  and 
receive  from  him  grace  to  discharge  them. 

All  the  truth  in  the  world,  outside  the  word  of 
God,  cannot  substitute  one  truth  that  is  peculiar  to 
the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  not 
too  much  truth  in  the  Gospel,  as  there  is  not  too 
much  light  and  heat  in  the  sun.  We  can  spare  none 
of  it,  and  yet  there  is  enough  for  every  duty,  every 
relation,  every  condition  of  life.  Every  virtue  and 
every  grace  that  can  establish  and  adorn  the  family 
life  finds  its  root  and  support  in  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  The  family  that  would  live  by  another  than 
the  law  of  Christ  robs  itself  of  the  most  exalted 


The  Christian  Home,  173 

privilege  and  truest  blessedness  possible  to  human- 
ity here  below.  And  that  home,  whether  it  be  in  a 
king's  palace  or  in  a  slave's  cabin,  where  Jesus  is 
most  truly  the  Lord  of  all  hearts,  and  the  pattern 
of  all  lives,  is  most  like  heaven — the  home  of  the 
good  who  have  entered  into  rest — of  all  places  in 
the  world. 

Would  God  that  we  would  make  our  homes  sa- 
cred in  the  eyes  of  our  children !  And,  if  we  will, 
we  may.  Once  only  does  childhood,  does  youth 
come ;  it  is  the  parent's  opportunity.  Let  him  use 
it  well ;  it  comes  no  more.  By  and  by  our  day  will 
end,  and  we  will  be  **  gathered  to  our  fathers." 
Then,  when  we  are  dead  and  gone,  our  children  will 
remember,  among  the  earliest  experiences  of  child- 
hood they  can  recall,  the  family  altar,  standing  with 
its  perpetual  fires  of  devotion,  in  the  very  midst  of 
the  family  life,  with  its  morning  and  evening  sacri- 
fice, its  incense  of  prayer  and  praise  ever  ascending 
a  sweet  savor  to  God.  To  remember  such  a  child- 
hood will  some  day  bring  a  joy  that  can  almost 
make  old  hearts  young  again. 

And  now,  as  the  conclusion  of  our  argument  on 
this  subject,  and  as  expressive  of  the  highest  and 
holiest  style  of  life  this  side  the  mansions  of  the 
blest,  we  may  say  that,  if  making  our  homes  happy 
we  do  also  make  them  sacred,  we  will  have  achieved 
for  our  households  the  utmost  that  is  possible  to  us 
in  this  worlds  as  well  as  all  that  we  should  desire  to 


174  Our  Children. 

accomplish — we  will  make  them  types  of  the  heav- 
enly homes  that  await  the  good  in  the  world  of  light 
and  perfect  blessedness. 

And  this  feeling,  that  heaven  is  home,  has  its 
roots  deep  in  our  hearts.  Our  Redeemer  sanctions 
the  sentiment,  and  makes  a  memorable  appeal  to 
our  instinctive  faith  in  its  truthfulness :  *'  Let  not 
your  hearts  be  troubled ;  ye  believe  in  God,  believe 
also  in  me.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  man- 
sions; if  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go 
to  prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare 
a  place  for  you,  I  will  come  again,  and  receive  you 
unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also." 

Thrice  happy  is  that  man  whose  memory  of  a 
Christian  home  quickens  his  desire  for  a  better,  in 
"Our  Father's  House"  in  heaven!  In  such  a  case 
we  might  say,  with  a  good  old  German  saint  when 
about  to  go  hence,  "  Blessed  are  the  home-sick, 
for  they  shall  get  home  ! " 


The  Family  Altar.  175 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE    FAMILY    ALTAR. 

/^~\N  this  subject  we  prefer  to  take  from  one  of 
^^  Robert  Hall's  eloquent  sermons  his  admirable 
and  useful  remarks  upon  ''  Family  Worship."  These 
observations  are  commended  to  the  careful  and 
prayerful  consideration  of  our  readers. 

*'  Family  prayer  is  a  natural  and  necessary  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  dependence  of  families  upon 
God,  and  the  immeasurable  obligations  they  are 
under  to  his  goodness.  On  what,  let  me  ask,  does 
the  obligation  of  social  worship  rest  ?  Is  it  not  in 
the  social  nature  by  which  man  is  distinguished  ? 
It  is  because  we  are  destined  to  live  in  society,  and 
are  bound  together  by  mutual  wants  and  sym- 
pathies, that  it  becomes  a  duty  to  worship  the 
Creator  in  a  social  manner.  Man,  being  essentially 
a  social  creature,  his  religion  takes  the  form  of  his 
nature  and  becomes  social.  Supposing  the  justice 
of  these  observations  to  be  admitted,  they  conclude 
with  the  greatest  force  in  favor  of  the  obligation  of 
family  worship.  Does  the  duty  of  social  worship 
result  from  man's  being  placed  in  society?  Here  is 
the  closest  and  most  intimate  society.  Is  it  right 
that  mercies  received  in  common  should  be  publicly 


lyb  Our  Children. 

acknowledged;  that  the  interpositions  of  Divine 
goodness  we  in  common  want,  should  be  implored 
in  company  with  each  other?  Here  is  a  perfect 
identity  of  wants  and  necessities;  a  closer  conjunc- 
tion of  interests  than  can  possibly  subsist  in  any 
other  situation.  In  an  affectionate  and  well-ordered 
family,  that  quick  sympathy  is  felt  which  pervades 
the  members  of  the  body:  if  one  member  suffers,  all 
suffer  with  it ;  or  if  one  member  be  honored,  all  the 
members  rejoice  with  it. 

"  No  earthly  blessing  can  befall  the  head  of  a  family 
in  which  the  members  do  not  share  the  benefit ;  no 
calamity  can  befall  him  without  spreading  sadness 
and  distress  through  the  household.  Whatever  is 
suffered,  or  whatever  is  enjoyed,  extends  its  influ- 
ence through  the  whole  circle.  Whoever,  conse- 
quently, reflects  on  the  true  foundation  of  social 
Avorship,  must  perceive  that  the  arguments  which 
evince  its  propriety  apply  to  the  worship  of  families 
with  greater  cogency,  in  proportion  as  the  ties  of 
domestic  union  are  more  close  and  intimate  than  all 
others.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  of  two  in- 
dividuals who  are  actuated  by  a  principle  of  true  re- 
ligion, passing  years  together  under  the  same  roof 
without  uniting  in  their  addresses  to  a  throne  of 
grace.  We  feel  a  persuasion  that  two  such  indi- 
viduals, though  nowise  related  to  each  other,  will  be 
led  to  signalize  their  union  by  acts  of  social  piety, 
and  that  as  they  must  often  hold   *  sweet  counsel 


The  Family  Altar.  lyy 

together,'  so  they  will  frequently  be  disposed  to 
pour  out  their  supplications  to  God. 

''  How  much  more  may  this  be  expected  to  take 
place  between  those  who  are  united  in  the  close  re- 
lation of  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children ! 
It  most  assuredly  will,  unless  that  ingredient  be 
wanting  which,  in  the  former  instance,  was  supposed 
a  principle  of  real  piety.  Thus  we  perceive  that 
family  religion  is  the  natural  result  of  the  social  na- 
ture of  man,  when  sanctified  by  divine  grace ;  that 
it  is,  in  truth,  a  most  important  branch  of  social  re- 
ligion. Viewed  in  that  light,  it  is  clearly  compre- 
hended within  the  extent  of  the  injunction,  of 
'  praying  always  with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in 
the  Spirit,  and  watching  thereunto  with  all  per- 
severance.' 

"■  The  duty  we  are  commending  is  enforced  by  its 
tendency,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  to  form  the 
minds  of  children  and  servants  to  the  love  and  prac- 
tice of  religion.  On  those  persons — if  there  be  any 
such — who  look  upon  religion  as  a  delusive  fancy, 
instead  of  the  most  important  concern  in  the  world, 
we  despair  of  making  any  impression ;  but  with 
those  who  believe  it  to  be  the  one  thing  needful,  the 
consideration  now  mentioned  will  have  considerable 
weight.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  what- 
ever we  wish  others  to  practice,  we  must  exemplify 
in  our  conduct  as  well  as  enjoin.     Would  we  wish 

to   impress  on   young  persons  a  sound   regard  for 
12 


178  Our  Children. 

veracity?  Wc  must  maintain  a  strict  regard  to  it  in 
our  intercourse  with  mankind.  Are  we  desirous  to 
train  up  our  families  in  the  observance  of  the  rules 
of  justice?  We  must  take  pains  to  signalize  our  at- 
tachment to  it  by  exemplary  uprightness  in  our  be- 
havior. In  every  department  of  moral  and  religious 
conduct  we  must  not  only  point  out  the  path,  but 
lead  the  way.  The  application  of  this  remark  to 
the  subject  in  hand  is  extremely  obvious.  Your 
wish,  we  take  it  for  granted,  is  to  train  up  your  chil- 
dren in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and,  as  a  necessary 
branch  of  this,  in  the  practice  of  prayer.  Is  it  like- 
ly you  will  succeed  in  that  wish  while  you  neglect  to 
afford  them  an  example  of  what  you  wish  them  to 
practice  ?  What,  under  the  blessing  of  Divine  grace, 
is  so  calculated  to  impress  them  with  the  import- 
ance of  prayer,  as  the  being  called  at  stated  intervals 
to  take  part  in  your  devout  supplications  to  God  ? 
While  they  witness  your  constancy,  assiduity,  and 
fervor  in  this  exercise,  they  cannot  fail  of  acknowl- 
edging its  importance,  without  avowing  a  contempt 
of  parental  example. 

'*  A  household  in  which  family  prayer  is  devoutly 
attended  to,  conjoined  with  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  is  a  school  of  religious  instruction.  The 
whole  contents  of  the  sacred  volume  are  in  due  time 
laid  before  them.  They  are  continually  reminded 
of  their  relation  to  God  and  their  Redeemer,  of  theii 
sins  and  their  wants,  and  of  the  method  they  must 


The  Family  Altar.  179 

take  to  secure  pardon  for  the  one  and  relief  for  the 
other.  Every  day  they  are  receiving  Mine  upon 
hnc,  and  precept  upon  precept.'  A  fresh  accession 
is  continually  making  to  their  stock  of  knowledge: 
new  truths  are  gradually  opened  to  their  view,  and 
the  impression  of  old  truths  revived.  A  judicious 
parent  will  naturally  notice  the  most  striking  inci- 
dents in  his  family  in  his  devotional  addresses,  such 
as  the  sickness,  or  death,  or  removal  for  a  longer  or 
a  shorter  time,  of  the  members  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed. His  address  will  be  varied  according  to  cir- 
cumstances.* Has  a  pleasing  event  spread  joy  and 
cheerfulness  through  the  household?  it  will  be  no- 
ticed with  becoming  expression  of  fervent  gratitude. 
Has  some  calamity  overwhelmed  the  domestic  cir- 
cle ?  it  will  give  occasion  for  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  divine  equity.  The  justice  of  God's  proceed- 
ings will  be  indicated  and  grace  implored  through 
the  blood  of  the  Redeemer  to  sustain  and  sanctify 
the  stroke. 

"  When  the  most  powerful  feelings  and  the  most 
interesting  circumstances  are  thus  connected  with 
rehgion,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope  that  through 
Divine  grace,  some  lasting  and  useful  impressions 
will  be  made.  Is  not  some  part  of  the  good  seed 
thus  sown,  and  thus  nurtured,  likely  to  take  root  and 

*And  we  may  add  to  Mr.  Hall's  judicious  suggestions,  that  the  Bi- 
ble lesson  may  lend  the  charm  of  pleasing  and  useful  variety  to  the 
form  and  language  of  the  prayer  that  succeeds  it. 


i8o  Our  Children. 

to  become  fruitful  ?  Deeply  as  we  are  convinced  of 
the  deplorable  corruption  of  the  human  heart,  and 
the  necessity,  consequent  on  this,  of  divine  agency 
to  accomplish  a  saving  purpose,  we  must  not  forget 
that  God  is  accustomed  to  work  by  means  ;  and  sure- 
ly none  can  be  conceived  more  likely  to  meet  the 
end.  What  can  be  so  likely  to  impress  a  child  with 
the  dread  of  sin,  as  to  hear  his  parent  constantly 
deprecating  the  wrath  of  God  as  justly  due  to  it;  or 
to  induce  him  to  seek  an  interest  in  the  mediation 
and  intercession  of  the  Saviour,  as  to  hear  him  im- 
ploring it  for  him,  day  by  day,  with  an  importunity 
proportioned  to  the  magnitude  of  the  subject  ? 

**  By  a  daily  attendance  on  such  exercises  children 
and  servants  are  taught  most  effectually  to  pray ; 
suitable  topics  are  suggested  to  their  minds  ;  suita- 
ble petitions  are  put  into  their  mouths  ;  while  their 
growing  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures  furnishes 
the  arguments  by  which  they  may  '  plead  with 
God; 

^'  May  I  not  appeal  to  you  who  have  enjoyed  the 
blessing  of  being  trained  up  under  religious  parents, 
whether  you  do  not  often  recall  with  solemn  tender- 
ness what  you  felt  in  domestic  worship ;  how  amia- 
ble your  parent  appeared  at  such  seasons,  doubly 
sacred,  while  you  beheld  in  him,  not  only  the  father 
but  the  priest  over  his  household,  invested  not  only 
with  parental  authority,  but  with  the  beauty  of 
holiness 


The  Family  Altar  i8r 

"•  Where  a  principle  of  religion  is  not  yet  planted  in 
the  hearts  of  the  young,  family  prayer,  accompanied 
with  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  is  with  the  di- 
vine blessing,  the  most  likely  means  of  introducing 
it.  Where  it  already  subsists,  it  is  admirably  adapt- 
ed to  cherish,  strengthen,  and  advance  it  to  maturi- 
ty; in  the  latter  case  it  is  like  the  morning  and  the 
evening  dew  at  the  root  of  the  tender  blade.  On  the 
contrary,  where  there  is  no  public  acknowledgment 
of  God  in  a  family,  nothing  can  be  expected  but 
that  children  and  servants  should  grow  up  ignorant 
and  careless  of  their  highest  concerns.  You  may 
pretend,  indeed,  that  you  are  punctual  in  your  pri- 
vate devotions;  but  without  observing  that  this 
pretense,  under  such  circumstance,  will  seldom  bear 
a  rigorous  examination.  W^hat  is  that  part  of  your 
conduct  that  falls  under  the  notice  of  your  domes- 
tics, that  distinguishes  you  from  those  unhappy  per- 
sons who  live  without  God  in  the  world?  If  the 
Scriptures  are  not  r^ad,  if  your  family  is  never  con- 
vened for  worship,  no  trace  or  vestige  of  religion 
remains.  A  stranger  who  sojourns  in  such  a  family 
will  be  tempted  to  exclaim,  with  much  more  truth 
and  propriety  than  Abraham  on  another  occasion : 
^  Surely  the  fear  of  God  is  not  in  this  place  ' 

*'The  practice  of  family  worship  may  be  expected 
to  have  a  most  beneficial  influence  on  the  character 
and  conduct  of  the  heads  of  families  themselves.  In 
common  with  other  means  of  grace,  it  is  reasonable 


1 82  Our  Children. 

to  expect  it  will  have  this  influence.  Of  all  the 
means  of  grace,  prayer  is  the  most  beneficial.  But 
prayer,  under  the  circumstances  we  are  now  con- 
templating, is  likely  to  be  productive  of  advantages 
which  deserve  to  be  considered  by  themselves. 

"  He  who  statedly  invites  others  to  be  witnesses  ol 
his  devotions  invites  a  peculiar  inspection  of  his  be- 
havior, and  must  be  conscious  to  how  much  observa- 
tion and  contempt  he  lays  himself  open  should  he 
betray  a  flagrant  inconsistency  between  his  prayers 
and  his  conduct.  That  parent  who  morning  and 
evening  summons  his  family  to  acts  of  devotion,  is 
not  perhaps  distinctly  aware  of  the  total  amount  of 
the  influence  this  circumstance  has  upon  his  mind. 
It  will  act  as  a  continual  monitor,  and  will  impose 
useful  restraint  upon  his  behavior.  He  recollects 
that  he  is  about  to  assume  an  awful  and  venerable 
character  in  the  eyes  of  his  domestics — a  character 
which  must  set  the  indulgence  of  a  multitude  of  im- 
proprieties in  a  most  glaring  light.  Is  he  in  danger 
of  being  ensnared  into  indecent  levity,  or  of  con- 
tracting a  habit  of  foolish  jesting  and  talking?  He 
recollects  he  is  soon  to  appear  as  the  mouth  of  his 
family  in  addressing  the  blessed  God.  Is  he  sur- 
rounded with  temptations  to  an  immoderate  indulg- 
ence of  his  fleshly  appetites  in  meats  and  drinks ; 
should  he  yield  to  the  temptation  how  would  he 
bear  in  the  eyes  of  his  family  to  appear  on  his  knees 
before  God  ?     Is  he  tempted  to  use  harsh  and  pro- 


The  Family  Altar.  183 

voking  language  to  his  children?  He  recollects  he 
is  in  a  few  hours  to  bear  them  in  his  arms  before  the 
Lord.  He  is  to  commend  his  companion  in  life  to 
the  divine  mercy  and  protection  ;  how,  then,  can  he 
be  '  bitter  against  her  ?  '  The  case  of  his  servants  is 
to  be  shortly  presented  before  God  in  social  prayer ; 
under  such  a  recollection  it  will  surely  not  be  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  forbear  threatening,  reflecting  that  he 
himself  has  '  a  Master  in  heaven.'  Knowing  that  in 
the  hearing  of  all  his  inmates  he  is  about  to  bewail 
the  corruptions  of  his  nature,  to  implore  pardon  for 
his  sins  and  strength  to  resist  temptation,  will  he 
not  feel  a  double  obligation  on  this  account  to  strug- 
gle against  that  corruption  and  anxiously  to  shun 
temptation  ?  The  punctual  discharge  of  the  duty 
we  are  contending  for  will  strengthen  his  sense  of 
the  obligation  of  domestic  duties,  forcibly  remind 
him  of  what  he  owes  to  every  member  of  the  do- 
mestic circle,  and  cement  the  ties  of  conjugal  and 
parental  affections. 

*'  The  most  plausible  plea  which  will  be  urged  for 
the  neglect  of  this  duty,  that  I  think  of,  is  want  of 
ability.  To  this  it  would  not  be  easy  to  furnish  a 
leply,  did  it  absolutely  require  a  degree  of  ability 
ribove  the  most  ordinary  measure.  They  who  urge 
this  plea  maybe  conscious  of  their  incapacity  to  be- 
come the  mouth  of  others  in  extemporary  prayer, 
but  this  is  by  no  means  necessary.  Excellent  forms, 
expressive  of  the  wants  and  desires  of  all  Christian 


1 84  Our  Children. 

families,  may  be  obtained,  which,  supposing  the  in- 
abihty  alleged  to  be  real,  ought  by  all  means  to  be 
employed.  We,  as  Dissenters,  for  the  most  part, 
use  and  prefer  free  prayer.  But  God  forbid  we 
should  ever  imagine  this  the  only  mode  of  prayer 
which  is  acceptable  to  God.  We  cannot  doubt  that 
multitudes  of  devout  persons  have  used  forms  of 
devotion  with  great  and  eminent  advantage.  To 
present  our  desires  before  God,  in  reliance  on  the 
atonement  of  the  Mediator,  is  the  real  end  of  prayer, 
and  is  equally  acceptable  whether  it  be  offered  with 
or  without  a  preconceived  form  of  words.  The 
plea  of  mental  inability  will  not  stand  the  test  of  an 
examination,  unless  it  includes  an  incapacity  to 
read  ;  a  case  comparatively  rare,  and  which  we 
hope  is  becoming  continually  rarer,  and  applies 
to  few  instances  of  the  neglect  we  are  complain- 
ing of. 

*'  It  is  more  than  probable  that  those  who  com- 
plain of  this  inability  have  never  made  the  trial,  and 
consequently  never  can  form  any  accurate  judgment 
of  their  qualifications.  Were  you  to  make  the  at- 
tempt, beginning  with  the  use  of  a  form  if  abso- 
lutely necessary,  and  making  variations  and  ad- 
ditions as  your  feelings  may  suggest,  you  would 
find  the  accomplishment  of  that  gracious  promise, 
*  They  that  wait  on  the  Lord  shall  renew  their 
strength.' 

"  If  your  omission  of  family  prayer  is  accompa- 


The  Family  A  Itar.  1 8 5 

nied  with  a  similar  neglect  of  private  devotion,  your 
situation  is,  indeed,  deplorable  ;  you  are  living 'with- 
out God  in  the  world.'  But  supposing  you  to  make 
conscience  of  private  prayer,  why  not  adopt  the 
same  method  in  domestic  worship,  with  the  addition 
of  such  petitions  as  the  circumstances  of  its  greater 
publicity  require  ?  Beware  lest  a  secret  disaffection 
to  God,  a  secret  enmity  to  his  person  and  his  ways, 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  this  apology.  It  wears  a 
show  of  humility,  but  it  is  but  a  mere  shadow  of  it, 
without  the  substance. 

"Another  class  of  persons  are  ready  to  admit  the 
propriety  and  utility  of  this  practice,  but  allege  that 
such  is  the  variety  and  multitude  of  their  worldly 
avocations,  that  they  cannot  spare  the  time  requi- 
site for  this  exercise.  Let  such  be  urged  to  remem- 
ber that  the  time  necessary  for  the  purpose  we  are 
recommending  is  very  small — five  minutes  will  suf- 
fice for  reading  an  ordinary  chapter ;  not  many  more 
for  the  utterance  of  a  fervent  prayer;  so  that  the 
exercise,  morning  and  evening,  need  occupy  little, 
if  any  thing,  more  than  half  an  hour.  And  is  this  a 
space  too  much  to  be  allotted,  in  the  most  busy  life, 
for  an  exercise  so  sacred  in  its  obligation,  and  so  re- 
plete with  advantage,  as  this  has  been  shown  to  be? 
Where  is  the  man  so  incessantly  occupied  as  not  to 
allow  himself  more  leisure  than  this,  frequently,  if 
not  habitually  that  does  not  allot  more  time  to 
objects  of  confessedly  inferior  magnitude  ? 


iS6  Our  Children. 

"  In  addition  to  what  has  been  advanced,  It  would 
not  be  difficult  to  prove  that  no  loss  of  time  will 
usually  result  ;  for  what  may  seem  a  loss  will  be 
more  than  compensated  by  that  spirit  of  order  and 
regularity  which  the  stated  observance  of  this  duty 
tends  to  produce.  It  will  serve  as  an  edge  and  bor- 
der to  preserve  the  web  of  life  from  unraveling;  it 
will  tend  to  keep  every  thing  in  its  proper  place  and 
time ;  and  this  practice  will  naturally  introduce  a 
similar  regularity  in  other  employments.  Consider 
for  a  moment  on  what  principle  does  the  plea  of 
want  of  time  depend.  Plainly,  on  this:  that  relig- 
ion is  not  the  grand  concern  ;  that  there  is  some- 
thing more  important  than  the  service  of  God  ;  that 
the  pleasing  and  glorifying  of  our  Maker  is  not  the 
great  end  of  human  existence;  a  fatal  delusion,  a 
soul-destroying  mistake,  which  militates  against  the 
whole  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  presumptuously  im- 
peaches the  wisdom  of  that  Saviour  who  exclaimed, 
*  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  right- 
eousness ;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you.' 

"  Another  class  will,  perhaps,  reply,  '  We  are  con- 
vinced of  the  urgent  obligation  of  the  duty  which 
has  been  recommended  ;  but  we  have  so  long  neg- 
lected it  that  we  know  not  how  to  begin  —  are 
ashamed  at  the  prospect  of  the  surprise,  the  curi-- 
osity,  it  will  occasion.' 

"  But  there  is  much  impiety  in  this  shame,  and  if 


The  Family  Altar.  187 

it  be  permitted  to  deter  you  from  complying  with 
the  dictates  of  conscience  and  the  command  of 
God,  it  will  unquestionably  class  you  with  the  fear- 
ful and  unbelieving,  who  shall  have  their  portion  in 
the  second  death.  To  be  ashamed  of  the  service 
of  Christ  is  to  be  ashamed  of  Christ  and  his  cross  ; 
and  you  have  heard  the  divine  denunciation  of 
judgment  on  such  characters:  '  Whosoever  therefore 
shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  of  my  words,  in  this 
adulterous  and  sinful  generation,  of  him  also  shall 
the  Son  of  man  be  ashamed,  when  he  cometh  in  the 
glory  of  his  Father  with  the  holy  angels.'  You  are 
afraid  of  presenting  yourself  under  a  singular  aspect 
to  your  domestics  and  acquaintance  :  have  you  not 
reflected  on  the  awful  and  trying  situation  in  which 
you  will  be  placed  by  the  infliction  of  the  sentence, 
justly  merited,  '  Of  him  will  1  be  ashamed  ?'  " 

We  will  only  add  to  what  the  eloquent  and  evan- 
gelical preacher  has  said  a  short  story  which  comes 
to  the  writer  in  a  reliable  shape,  and  well  illustrates 
the  closing  thoughts  of  Mr.  Hall's  admirable  dis- 
course. 

''  A  well-to-do  and  intelligent  farmer,  who  had 
eight  grown-up  children,  was  powerfully  convicted 
of  sin,  but  would  not  yield  to  be  saved.  Being 
asked  as  to  the  nature  of  his  difficulties,  he  an- 
swered :  '^  If  I  become  a  Christian  and  make  a  pro- 
fession of  religion  I  must  have  family  worship. 
But   I   cannot   take  my  Bible,  read  a  chapter,  and 


1 88  Our  Children. 

then  kneel  down  and  pray  in  the  presence  of  my 
family.  Had  I  commenced  when  my  children  were 
young,  as  I  oiigJit  to  have  done,  it  would  have  been 
comparatively  easy;  but  now  most  of  them  are 
grown  up  around  mc,  and  I  cannot  do  it,  /  cannot 
do  ity 

"  A  nd  he  did  n^.  '* 


Eli  and  his  Sons,  189 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

ELI    AND    HIS    SONS. 

ELI  was  high-priest  and  judge  in  Israel  when 
the  ark  was  in  Shiloh.  How  he  came  to  be 
priest,  and  how  the  priestly  office  was  transferred 
from  the  house  of  Eleazer  to  the  house  of  Ithamar, 
who  was  Aaron's  youngest  son,  we  do  not  know.* 
The  beginning  of  Eli's  career  is  hid  in  the  gloom  of 
the  dark  ages  of  Jewish  history.  Samson,  who  was 
little  more  than  a  lawless  leader  of  lawless  men, 
could  do  but  little  for  Israel  that  would  survive  his 
own  turbulent  life.  He  was  no  true  ruler  of  the 
people,  teaching  them  right  principles,  and  illus- 
trating them  in  his  own  life.  He  made  no  con- 
tribution to  the  progress  of  the  nation.  He  left 
to  history  nothing  but  the  story  of  his  amazing 
strength  and  his  terrible  revenges.  When  the  blind 
giant  pulled  down  upon  himself  the  temple  of  Dagon 
in  Gaza  and  found  common  death  with  the  lords 
of  the  Philistines,  Israel  was  left  to  the  turbulence 
and  revenges  of  discordant  factions,  and  to  the  rage 
of  relentless  enemies.  There  followed  a  long  and 
gloomy  period  of  anarchy,  when  ''  there  was  no  king 

*  Compare  I  Sam.  i,  3,  9 ;  Lev,  x,  I,  2,  12  ;  r  K'ngs  ii,  27  ;  i  Chron. 
xxiv,  3  ;    2  Sam.  viii,  17.     Also  i  Sam.  xiv,  3. 


igo  Our  Children. 

in  Israel,  and  every  man  did  that  which  was  right 
in  his  own  eyes."  This  is  the  last  word  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Judges  of  Israel,  and  it  tells  us  plainly 
enough  what  the  historian  had  not  the  heart  to  re- 
cord. The  last  five  chapters  of  the  book  of  Judges 
are  crowded  with  pictures  of  confusion,  anarchy,  ir- 
regular worship,  idolatry,  internecine  struggles,  and 
horrid  war — pictures  drawn  in  fire  and  blood. 

Amid  some  of  the  disorders  of  this  dark  period 
Eli  became  high-priest  and  judge  of  Israel.  He  ap- 
pears upon  the  scene  abruptly — sitting  upon  "  a  seat 
by  a  post  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord,"  close  by  the 
spot  where  Hannah,  the  sorrowful,  because  childless, 
wife  of  Elkanah,  was  praying  that  God  would  give 
her  a  son.  When  he  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-eight, 
he  had  been  priest  and  ruler  for  forty  years.  But 
we  cannot  tell  how  long  he  had  been  in  office  the 
day  he  administered  the  unmerited  rebuke  to  the 
pious  Hannah. 

The  parent  who  can  read  the  story  of  Eli  and  his 
sons  without  anxious  interest,  increased  by  many 
mingled  hopes  and  fears  concerning  his  own  chil- 
dren, is  strangely  insensible.  For  it  is  a  story  re- 
plete with  dramatic  power  and  tragic  interest.  Nor 
does  the  simple  recital  of  the  ancient  chronicler  who 
compiled  the  annals  of  Samuel  need  the  garniture 
of  many  words. 

As  to  Eli  himself,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  a  man  of  great  gifts  or  great  deeds.     His  life 


Eli  and  Ids  Sons.  191 

I's  not  instructive  by  its  exalted  virtues  and  deep 
devotion  so  much  as  by  its  neglects,  its  misfortunes, 
and  its  punishment.  That  his  disposition  was  ami- 
able and  affectionate  is  evident.  Very  kind  were  his 
words  to  Hannah  when  once  he  understood  why 
she  lingered  and  prayed  in  the  house  of  God. 

The  brightest  trait  in  Eli's  character  is  his  sub- 
mission to  the  will  of  God  when  it  bore  hardest  upon 
him  and  his  house. 

In  the  morning  after  young  Samuel's  vision  Eli 
called  him  and  said,  "  What  is  the  thing  that  the 
Lord  hath  said  unto  thee  ?  I  pray  thee  hide  it  not 
from  me.  .  .  .  And  Samuel  told  him  every  whit,  and 
hid  nothing  from  him."  It  was  no  message  of  hope, 
but  the  revelation  of  the  doom  that  was  hovering 
over  the  high-priest's  house.  *'  And  the  Lord  said 
to  Samuel,  Behold,  I  will  do  a  thing  in  Israel,  at 
which  both  the  ears  of  every  one  that  heareth  it 
shall  tingle.  In  that  day  I  will  perform  against  Eli 
all  things  which  I  have  spoken  concerning  his  house : 
when  I  begin,  I  will  also  make  an  end.  For  I  have 
told  him  that  I  will  judge  his  house  forever  for  the 
iniquity  which  he  knoweth ;  because  his  sons  made 
themselves  vile,  and  he  restrained  them  not.  And 
therefore  I  have  sworn  unto  the  house  of  Eli,  that 
the  iniquity  of  Eli's  house  shall  not  be  purged  with 
sacrifice  nor  offering  forever." 

In  this  last  warning  ever  given  to  Eli  there  is  a 
reference  to  admonitions  and  threatenings  already 


192  Our  Children. 

delivered.  About  twenty  years,  as  is  supposed, 
before  the  midnight  revelation  to  young  Samuel, 
'^  a  man  of  God  " — an  unknown  and  unnamed  proph- 
et— suddenly  appears  before  Eli,  delivers  a  fearful 
message,  and  then  steps  back  into  the  obscurity 
from  which  he  came  and  we  see  him  no  more. 

What  had  this  unnamed  prophet  said  to  the  ven- 
erable priest,  while  Hophni  and  Phinehas  were  yet 
in  their  youth,  while  there  was  yet  hope  for  their 
reformation  and  salvation  ? 

''And  there  came  a  man  of  God  unto  Eli,  and 
said  unto  him.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Did  I  plainly 
appear  unto  the  house  of  thy  father,  when  they 
were  in  Egypt  in  Pharaoh's  house?  And  did  I 
choose  him  out  of  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  to  be  my 
priest,  to  offer  upon  mine  altar,  to  burn  incense,  to 
wear  an  ephod  before  me  ?  and  did  I  give  unto  the 
house  of  thy  father  all  the  offerings  made  by  fire  of 
the  children  of  Israel?  Wherefore  kick  ye  at  my 
sacrifice  and  at  mine  offering,  which  I  have  com- 
manded in  my  habitation ;  and  honorest  thy  sons 
above  me,  to  make  yourselves  fat  with  the  chiefest 
of  all  the  offerings  of  Israel  my  people?  Where- 
fore the  Lord  God  of  Israel  saith,  I  said  indeed  that 
thy  house,  and  the  house  of  thy  father,  should  walk 
before  me  forever:  but  now  the  Lord  saith.  Be  it 
far  from  me  ;  for  them  that  honor  me  I  will  honor, 
and  they  that  despise  me  shall  be  lightly  esteemed. 
Behold,  the  days  come,  that  I  will  cut  off  thine  arm, 


Eli  and  Ids  Sons.  193 

and  the  arm  of  thy  father's  house,  that  there  shall 
not  be  an  old  man  in  thine  house.  And  thou  shalt 
see  an  enemy  in  my  habitation,  in  all  the  wealth 
which  God  shall  give  Israel :  and  there  shall  not  be 
an  old  man  in  thine  house  forever.  And  the  man 
of  thine  whom  I  shall  not  cut  off  from  mine  altar, 
shall  be  to  consume  thine  eyes,  and  to  grieve  thino 
heart :  and  all  the  increase  of  thine  house  shall  die 
in  the  flower  of  their  age.  And  this  shall  be  a  sign 
unto  thee,  that  shall  come  upon  thy  two  sons,  on 
Hophni  and  Phinehas ;  in  one  day  they  shall  die 
both  of  them.  And  I  will  raise  me  up  a  faithful 
priest,  that  shall  do  according  to  that  which  is  in 
mine  heart  and  in  my  mind :  and  I  will  build  him  a 
sure  house ;  and  he  shall  walk  before  mine  anointed 
forever.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  every  one 
that  is  left  in  thine  house  shall  come  and  crouch  to 
him  for  a  piece  of  silver  and  a  morsel  of  bread,  and 
shall  say.  Put  me,  I  pray  thee,  into  one  of  the 
priests'  offices,  that  I  may  eat  a  piece  of  bread." 

All  this  was  terrible.  God's  wrath  was  to  be 
poured  in  overwhelming  and  desolating  storms  upon 
Eli  and  his  house.  But  this  was  not  the  worst ;  so 
far,  at  least,  as  this  world  was  concerned,  there  wai. 
to  be  no  mercy.  '*  I  have  sworn  unto  Eli,  that  the 
iniquity  of  Eli's  house  shall  not  be  purged  with  sac- 
rifice and  offering  forever." 

What  answer  can  Eli  make  to  Samuel's  message 

announcing  the  impending  judgments  of  God,  and 
13 


194  Our  Children. 

declaring  anew  what  the  ''  man  of  God,"  the  un- 
named prophet,  had  said  twenty  years  ago  ?  Truly 
it  was  no  ordinary  liumiHty  and  resignation  to  the 
Divine  will  that  could  promptly  reply  to  all  this, 
"It  is  the  Lord  ;  let  him  do  what  seemeth  him 
good."  We  have  a  further  and  striking  proof  of  his 
personal  piety  in  his  deep  concern  for  the  ark  of 
God,  and  his  heart-breaking  sorrow  at  its  capture, 
on  the  day  of  Israel's  overwhelming  defeat  by  the 
Philistine  armies. 

But  Eli  was  a  very  inefficient  ruler,  a  very  unwise, 
unfaithful,  and  unhappy  father;  "a  wavering,  feeble, 
powerless  man,  with  excellent  intentions,  but  an 
utter  want  of  will."  As  chief  judge  and  high-priest 
of  Israel  during  forty  years,  he  held  the  reins  of 
authority  with  a  feeble  and  irresolute  hand.  Fred- 
erick Robertson  says  of  him  :  "  He  could  not  rule 
his  own  household  ;  he  could  not  rule  the  Church 
of  God — a  shy,  solitary,  amiable  ecclesiastic  and  re- 
cluse was  Eli.  And  such  are  the  really  fatal  men 
in  the  work  of  life.  .  .  .  Eli's  feelings  were  always 
good  ;  his  acts  were  always  wrong.  In  sentiment 
he  might  be  always  trusted  ;  in  action  he  was  for- 
ever false,  because  he  was  a  weak,  vacillating  man. 
All  history  overrates  such  men.  Men,  like  Eli,  ruin 
families  by  instability,  produce  revolutions,  die  well 
when  only  passive  courage  is  wanted,  and  are  reck- 
oned martyrs.  They  live  like  children  and  die  like 
heroes.     Deeply  true  to  nature  and  instructive  is 


Eli  and  his  Sons.  195 

this  history  of  Eli.  It  is  quite  natural  that  such 
men  should  suffer  well.  For  if  only  their  minds  are 
made  up  for  them  by  inevitable  circumstances,  they 
can  submit.  When  people  come  to  Eli  and  say, 
*  You  should  reprove  your  sons,'  he  can  do  it  after 
a  fashion ;  when  it  is  said  to  him,  *  You  must  die,' 
he  can  make  up  his  mind  to  die ;  but  this  is  not 
taking  up  the  cross." 

It  is  evident  from  various  circumstances  that  dur- 
ing his  long  and  feeble  rule  many  abuses  that  should 
have  been  crushed  the  day  they  were  born  had 
grown  up  all  around  him.  When  Hannah  went 
into  the  temple  of  the  Lord  at  Shiloh,  ''  and  was  in 
bitterness  of  soul,"  as  she  prayed  to  God  for  a  son, 
Eli  who  was  sitting  close  by  where  she  knelt  mis- 
took her  for  a  lewd  and  drunken  woman.  "  And  it 
came  to  pass,  as  she  continued  praying  before  the 
Lord,  that  Eli  marked  her  mouth.  Now  Hannah, 
she  spake  in  her  heart ;  only  her  lips  moved,  but  her 
voice  was  not  heard :  therefore  Eli  thought  she  had 
been  drunken.  And  Eli  said  unto  her,  How  long 
vilt  thou  be  drunken?  put  away  thy  wine  from 
hee."  All  this  shows  that  religion  was  at  a  low 
)bb  indeed,  and  the  regulations  concerning  the  ad- 
mission of  improper  characters  into  the  sacred  in- 
closure  much  neglected.  The  manner  in  which  this 
circumstance  is  introduced  into  the  narrative  shows 
that  drunken  women  were  frequently  seen  close 
about  the  altars  of  God.    When  matters  had  reached 


196  Our  Children. 

such  a  pass  that  the  sight  of  one  supposed  to  be  a 
drunken  woman  in  the  sanctuary  excited  no  sur- 
prise, and  only  drew  from  the  high-priest  a  common- 
place reproof,  we  may  well  believe  that  there  had 
been  strange  and  criminal  carelessness  in  the  admin- 
istration of  affairs. 

Under  Eli's  slack  and  feeble  rule  many  grave 
abuses  had  developed  in  the  dealings  of  the  subordi- 
nate priests  with  the  people.  Certain  parts  of  the 
offerings  were  alloted  by  law  for  the  support  of  the 
priests  and  their  families.  In  addition  to  this  it  had 
become  customary  for  the  servants  of  the  priests  to 
come,  while  the  flesh  was  being  boiled  for  the  use 
of  the  offerer  and  his  friends,  and,  with  his  three- 
pronged  flesh-hook  *'^  in  his  hand,  "  he  struck  it  into 
the  pan,  or  kettle,  or  caldron,  or  pot."  What  his 
"three-pronged  flesh-hook"  brought  up  the  priest 
appropriated  to  his  own  use.  ''  So  they  did  in  Shi- 
loh  unto  all  the  Israelites  that  came  thither."  The 
people,  perhaps,  out  of  a  habit  of  veneration  for  a 
priesthood  that  was  indeed  no  longer  entitled  to  re- 
spect, submitted  to  this  additional  tax  upon  their 
offerings,  by  which  the  appetite  of  the  priests  was 
gratified  with  greater  variety,  and  their  avarice  with 
larger  perquisites.     But  these  rapacious  sons  of  Be- 

*  The  three-pronged  fork  which  fishes  up  the  seething  flesh  is  the 
earliest  type  of  grasping  at  pluralities  and  church  preferments  by  base 
means.  For  students  of  ecclesiastical  history,  Hophni  and  Phinehas 
are  characters  of  great  and  "  instructive  wickedness."  They  are  the 
true  exemplars  of  the  grasping  and  worldly  clergy  of  all  ages.— Sfanley. 


Eli  and  his  Sons.  197 

lial,  Eli's  sons,  were  not  satisfied  with  this.  The 
flesh-hook  plunged  into  the  pot  at  random  did  not 
always  bring  up  the  choicest  pieces.  They  claimed 
the  very  best  of  the  offerings,  and  if  any  devout, 
honest-minded  Israelite  objected  to  a  proceeding  so 
unjust,  and  so  unworthy  the  sacred  office  of  the 
priests,  the  very  servants  of  these  apostates  had 
the  effrontery  to  take  by  force  whatever  pieces  of 
the  flesh  they  chose.  Eli  was  a  careless  judge  and 
a  negligent  high-priest  to  allow  such  outrages  to 
pass  unrebuked,  or  even  to  allow  them  to  exist  for 
a  single  day.  Had  Eli  been  faithful  to  his  sacred 
duties,  had  he  ''  honored  God "  aright,  he  would, 
without  ceremony  or  delay,  have  ejected  from  an 
office  they  so  shamefully  abused  these  "  sons  of  Be- 
hal,"  Hophni  and  Phinehas — 'Mording  it  over  God's 
heritage,"  and  *'  profaning  his  altar." 

As  always,  in  such  a  case,  things  went  from  bad 
to  worse.  The  avarice  and  rapaciousness  of  Eli's 
sons  became  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  all  the 
people.  Their  wickedness  culminated  at  last  in  the 
foulest  and  most  unblushing  debauchery.  Was  ever 
blacker  record  made  than  this  ?  "  Now  Eli  was 
very  old,  and  heard  all  that  his  sons  did  unto  all 
Israel ;  and  how  they  lay  with  the  women  that  as- 
sembled at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle."  Truly  the 
glory  was  departing  from  Israel.  How  mournful  is 
the  inspired  comment,  ''Wherefore  the  sin  of  the 
young  men  was  very  great   before  the   Lord ;   for 


iqS  Our  Children. 

men  abhorred  the  offerings  of  the  Lord."  These 
were  evil  times  indeed ;  truly  these  men  were 
^'wolves  in  sheep's  clothing" — like  the  devil,  to 
whom  they  belonged,  ''going  about"  seeking  whom 
they  might  destroy. 

It  was  truly  "  the  hour  and  the  power  of  dark- 
ness," when  those  who  should  have  won  the  people 
to  God's  worship,  by  their  rapacity  and  licentious- 
ness drove  them  in  mortal  disgust  from  the  house 
of  God,  and  barred  them  from  the  use  of  his  altars. 

Now  read  and  learn  ye  parents  who  let  your  chil- 
dren live  as  they  list.  What  sort  of  a  speech  is  that 
which  a  timid,  doting,  fond,  and  foolish  old  father 
made  to  his  reprobate  sons !  What  sort  of  rebuke  is 
that  which  God's  anointed  high-priest  and  appoint- 
ed judge  administered  to  apostate  priests,  who  had 
made  themselves  so  vile  that  God's  humble  wor- 
shipers were  made  to  "abhor  the  offerings"  of  his 
altar!  Hear  him,  the  fond  father,  "honoring"  his 
unworthy  sons  above  the  honor  he  showed  to  the 
cause  of  God,  "  And  he  said  unto  them,  Why  do  ye 
such  things?  for  I  hear  of  your  evil  doings  by  all 
the  people.  Nay,  my  sons ;  for  it  is  no  good  report 
that  I  hear :  ye  make  the  Lord's  people  to  trans- 
gress." Such  words  might  have  been  appropriate 
as  the  rebuke  of  some  minor  offense;  as  the  reproof 
of  men  smarting  with  a  tender  conscience,  and 
penitent  on  account  of  acknowledged  and  lament- 
ed faults.     But  for  such  brazen-faced  apostates  and 


Eli  and  his  Sons.  igg 

seducers  of  the  people,  no  words  were  sufficient.  To 
have  ejected  them  at  once  and  forever  from  every 
priestly  office  was  the  very  least  that  Eli  could  have 
done,  if  his  fear  of  God  had  surpassed  his  foolish 
fondness  for  his  wicked  sons. 

But  the  principal  charge  brought  against  him  is 
one  that  makes  his  life  and  fate  an  instructive  study 
and  an  impressive  warning  to  us  all.  Why  are  such 
dire  punishments  to  be  visited  upon  Eli's  house  ? 
Why  is  the  ''  man  of  God,"  the  unnamed  prophet, 
who  delivered  the  first  warning  while  yet,  perhaps, 
there  was  space  for  repentance,  commissioned  to 
tell  the  high-priest  of  a  coming  day  when  there 
should  "not  be  an  old  man  in  his  house?" — when 
he  should  "  see  an  enemy  in  his  habitation  ?" — when 
such  of  his  children  as  should  not  be  cut  off  should 
live  but  *'  to  consume  his  eyes,  and  to  grieve  his 
heart  ?" — when  "  all  the  increase  of  his  house  should 
die  in  the  flower  of  their  age?" — when  any  soul  of 
his  descendants  who  might  escape  should  come  to 
those  who  occupied  the  places  that  might  have  been 
theirs,  and  "  crouch  to  them  for  a  piece  of  silver, 
and  a  morsel  of  bread?"  These  were,  indeed,  ter- 
rible maledictions.  How  are  they  to  be  explained  ? 
Of  what  heinous  parental  sin  are  they  the  just  and 
appropriate  punishment?  God  gives  the  answer — 
simple,  conclusive — "  For  I  have  told  him  that  I 
will  judge  his  house  forever  for  the  iniquity  that  he 
knoweth ;    because  his  sons  made   themselves   vile 


200  Our  Children. 

and  he  restrained  them  not."  These  words  were 
spoken  to  Samuel,  who  announced  as  impending  a 
doom  of  which  long  time  before  the  "  man  of  God" 
had  given  the  first  warning. 

But  in  vain.  Hophni  and  Phinehas  went  on  their 
way,  and  the  doting  father,  through  all  these  years 
of  probation  lengthened  out,  ''restrained  them  not." 
Eli  knew  what  became  a  father  and  a  high-priest, 
and  his  fault  would  have  been  inexcusable  had  there 
been  no  special  warning.  But  after  the  warning  his 
sin — as  to  its  consequences  in  this  world  at  least — 
was  unpardonable. 

It  is  not  simply  a  question  of  the  effect  of  his 
weak  indulgence  upon  his  sons  themselves,  but  upon 
the  people  and  the  cause  of  God.  In  Eli's  fault  was 
the  origin  of  most  of  the  troubles  of  the  times. 
His  sons  "  caused  the  Lord's  people  to  transgress." 
They  made  them  to  *'  abhor  the  offerings  of  God." 
What  Hophni  and  Phinehas  could  do  to  debauch 
society  and  corrupt  the  Church  they  did.  By  the 
potent  force  of  their  iniquitous  example,  they  taught 
the  people  avarice,  rapacity,  profanity,  licentious- 
ness. They  turned  loose  such  a  tide  of  sin  as  came 
near  sweeping  away  both  the  religion  and  the  liber- 
ties of  the  nation. 

God  makes  Eli  responsible  foi  this  fearful  state 
of  things,  because  he  did  not  punish  "  the  iniquity" 
that  he  knew ;  because  he  did  not  arrest  in  his  sons 
the    growth   of  sins   that   well-nigh    destroyed    the 


Eli  a?id  his  Sojis.  201 

people ;  *'  because  his  sons  made  themselves  vile 
and  he  restrained  them  not." 

Had  Eli  been  a  true  father  to  his  sons  they  had 
never  outgrown  his  authority ;  they  had  never  reached 
a  depth  of  abandonment  in  sin  that  shut  them  off 
from  sacrifice  and  intercession.  If  there  is  any  first 
duty  we  owe  our  children,  it  is  that  which  Eli  did 
not  perform — it  is  the  duty  of  restraining  them. 
What  a  mercy  it  is  to  restrain  our  children  from  the 
commission  of  sin !  How  great  is  our  sin  when  we 
do  it  not ! 

It  is  not  the  fondest  parent  who  always  loves  his 
child  the  best,  nor  the  most  doting  who  will  gain 
the  child's  most  devoted  and  lasting  love.  On  the 
other  hand  the  severest  parents  are  not  those  who 
govern  most  wisely  and  successfully.  O,  that  rare 
man,  that  rare  woman,  who  knows  how  to  love  and 
to  rule — how  to  temper  kindness  with  firmness !  If 
the  hand  of  affection  hold  firmly  and  wisely  the  rod 
of  authority,  there  is  a  sure  pledge  of  the  Divine 
blessing  upon  the  training  such  government  implies, 
and  upon  the  obedience  that  it  secures. 

We  may  close  this  chapter  most  appropriately 
with  the  wise  words  of  Dr.  Adam  Clarke : — 

"  Many  fine  families  have  been  spoiled,  and  many 
ruined,  by  the  separate  exercise  of  these  two  prin- 
ciples. Parental  affection,  when  alone,  infallibly 
degenerates  into  foolish  fondness ;  and  parental  au- 
thority frequently  degenerates  into  brutal  tyranny 


202  Our  Children 

when  standing  by  itself.  The  first  soit  of  parents 
will  be  loved  without  being  respected  ;  the  second 
will  be  dreaded  without  either  respect  or  esteem. 
A  father  may  be  as  fond  of  his  offspring  as  Eli,  and 
his  children  be  sons  of  Belial ;  he  may  be  as  author- 
itative as  the  Grand  Turk,  and  his  children  despise 
and  plot  rebellion  against  him.  But  let  parental 
authority  be  tempered  with  fatherly  affection,  and 
let  the  rein  of  discipline  be  steadily  held  by  this 
powerful  but  affectionate  hand,  and  there  shall  the 
pleasure  of  God  prosper;  there  will  he  give  his 
blessing,  even  life  for  evermore." 


Ichabod,  203 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

ICHABOD. 

LET  US  follow  to  its  catastrophe  this  doleful  trag- 
-^  edy.  Heaven  reserves  the  right  of  vindicat- 
ing its  insulted  majesty  at  the  great  judgment-day. 
The  stores  of  its  delayed  vengeance  will  not  be 
found  wanting  in  that  day  of  final  inquisition  and 
award.  But  lest  men  should  altogether  forget  that 
there  is  really  a  Divine  government,  or  grow  skep- 
tical as  to  God's  purpose  to  enforce  its  claims,  ever 
and  anon,  even  in  this  world,  the  omnipotent  Ruler 
smites  his  obdurate  enemies  with  the  rod  of  his 
power.  Here  and  there,  along  the  great  highway 
of  the  world's  history,  God  has  built  monuments 
over  the  dead  nations  for  the  warning  of  the  living. 
And  there  are  more  of  them  than  careless  readers 
suppose.  They  are  found  in  almost  every  land, 
silent  but  mighty  preachers  of  repentance.  This — 
that  penalty  is  the  normal  and  inevitable  sequence 
of  sin — is  the  lesson  they  teach,  the  gospel  of  re- 
pentance they  preach:  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death." 
This  is  God's  announcement  to  all  the  nations  that 
dwell  upon  the  earth.  Sin  brings  death,  always, 
and  every-where ;  and  nothing  else  does,  or  can, 
bring  death  to  man.     But  sin  is  the  beginning  of 


204  Our  Children. 

death — rather  it  is  death  begun.  It  is  also  '*  the 
sting  of  death" — to  individuals,  to  families,  to  na- 
tions. It  cannot  be  otherwise.  The  Bible  is  full 
of  this  doctrine  ;  sound  reason  agrees  to  it ;  experi- 
ence and  observation  confirm  and  illustrate  it.  It 
is  the  great  lesson  of  human  history.  Not  Jewish 
history  only,  but  all  other  history  that  we  read 
aright,  proclaims  and  illustrates  this  law :  "  The 
wages  of  sin  is  death." 

This  is  what  the  flood  that  swept  the  earth  of  its 
life  in  the  days  of  Noah  teaches  us.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  the  fiery  ruin  that  descended  on  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah.  This  voice  comes  to  us  from  Jeru- 
salem in  ruins.  And  the  Jews — a  scattered  nation, 
peeled  and  oppressed — in  exile  among  all  people, 
preach  to  all  generations  the  sin,  and  folly,  and  ruin 
of  rebellion  against  God.  We  hear  this  warning,  in 
a  muffled  voice  from  the  graves  of  Herculaneum 
and  Pompeii.  The  desolate  palaces  of  Nineveh 
and  Babylon  echo  the  same  solemn  warning :  "  The 
wages  of  sin  is  death." 

Is  there  any  truth  so  plain,  so  important  as  this, 
and  yet  so  hard  to  understand,  so  easy  to  forget  ? 

The  apostasy  of  the  priests,  led  on  by  Hophni 
and  Phinehas,  and  the  consequent  wickedness  of 
the  people,  culminated  at  last  in  that  fearful  scourge 
of  God — cruel,  relentless  war.  Only  the  wicked  or 
the  ignorant  can  wish  for  war.  Those  whose  hearts 
are  steeled  to  human  woe  may  welcome  war  as  the 


■  Ichabod,  205 

means  of  their  aggrandizement ;  and  those  who  do 
not  know  what  war  is — w^ho  have  never  seen  battle- 
fields, or  hospitals,  or  besieged  and  destroyed  cities 
- — who  have  never  helped  to  bury  noble  friends  in 
shallow  ditches  right  w^iere  they  died — who  never 
followed  the  wake  of  a  desolating  army — who  have 
never  known  the  poverty  and  the  hunger,  the  wid- 
owhood and  orphanage,  the  madness  and  the  sin  of 
war,  these  may  talk  glibly  of  military  glory,  but 
the  good  man,  who  is  wise,  hates  war  and  prays 
evermore  for  peace. 

The  Philistines  were  in  Canaan  before  the  coming 
of  Abraham.  Originally  coming  from  a  tribe  of  the 
Egyptians  they  settled  themselves  in  the  south  of 
Palestine,  probably  stretching  themselves  north- 
ward along  the  Mediterranean  coast.  In  the  time 
of  Joshua  their  country  was  divided  into  five 
lordships  or  principalities :  Gaza — in  the  extreme 
south — Askelon,  Ashdod,  Gath,  and  Ekron,  on  the 
north.  The  conquests  of  Joshua  in  Philistia  were 
ill  maintained,  for  we  find  these  fierce  men  from  the 
south,  through  the  whole  four  hundred  years  of  the 
judges,  warring  upon  Israel  with  a  bitterness  that 
was  never  appeased.  Oftentimes  they  were  the  cruel 
oppressors  of  Israel,  till  such  time  as  ''  Israel  cried 
unto  the  Lord,"  and  some  deliverer  was  sent  in  an- 
swer to  the  prayer  of  a  penitent  nation.  There  w^ere 
always  quarrels  between  Israel  and  the  Philistines. 
Nor  were  they  ever  subdued  till  David  established 


2o6  Our  Children. 

his  kingdom,  and  overthrew  the  enemies  of  his 
people. 

Soon  after  the  last  message  and  warning  to  Eli — 
delivered  through  young  Samuel — war  broke  out 
between  the  children  of  Israel  and  the  Philistines. 
"  Now  Israel  went  out  against  the  Philistines  to 
battle,  and  pitched  beside  Eben-ezer :  and  the  Phil- 
istines pitched  in  Aphek.  And  the  Philistines  put 
themselves  in  array  against  Israel :  and  when  they 
joined  battle,  Israel  was  smitten  before  the  Philis- 
tines :  and  they  slew  of  the  army  in  the  field  about 
four  thousand  men." 

The  result  of  this  first  battle  seems  to  have  been 
a  surprise  to  the  children  of  Israel.  But  discomfited 
though  they  were,  they  strengthened  themselves  for 
another  trial  of  arms. 

The  elders  took  counsel  together.  They  remem- 
bered, perhaps,  how  that  Moses,  when  Israel  joined 
battle  with  Midian,  sent,  along  with  the  people, 
"  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazer  the  priest,  to  the 
war,  with  the  holy  instruments."  Perhaps,  too,  they 
recalled  the  procession  of  priests,  bearing  the  ark  in 
their  midst,  around  the  doomed  city  of  Jericho. 
And  the  elders  said,  *'  Wherefore  hath  the  Lord 
smitten  us  to-day  before  the  Philistines?"  Alas! 
they  seemed  not  to  know  that  their  sins  had  brought 
defeat  that  day  upon  Israel.  Instead  of  proclaiming 
a  fast  and  bowing  themselves  to  the  earth  in  repent- 
ance and  lamentation  over  their  sins,  they  say,  ''  Let 


Ichabod.  207 

us  fetch  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  out  of 
Shiloh  unto  us,  that  when  it  cometh  among  us,,  it 
may  save  us  out  of  the  hand  of  our  enemies." 

Deluded  men !  They  should  have  sought  for  the 
coming  of  the  God  of  the  covenant,  ind  not  for  the 
ark  of  the  covenant.  The  ark  could  do  them  no 
good  who  had  forsaken  their  God.  But  how  this  de- 
lusion has  perpetuated  itself  in  the  world  !  When 
the  Church  loses  the  *'  life  and  power  of  godliness," 
she  clings  with  superstitious  reverence  and  fondness 
to  the  dead  and  putrefying  forms  of  the  life  that 
she  has  lost.  Better  in  such  a  case  to  "  bury  their 
dead  out  of  their  sight." 

"How  have  the  mighty  fallen!"  "How  has  the 
fine  gold  become  dim  ! "  Are  these  the  children  of 
the  men  who  followed  Joshua's  banner  and  chased 
their  enemies  when  the  "  sun  stood  still  in  the  midst 
of  heaven,  and  hasted  not  to  go  down  about  a  whole 
day?"  Those  who  have  forgotten  God  now  seek 
"  the  ark,"  saying,  "  that  when  it  cometh  among  us, 
it  may  save  us  from  the  hands  of  our  enemies." 
And  what  was  this  "ark  of  the  covenant"  without 
the  presence  and  blessing  of  Him  who  answered 
from  between  the  cherubim  when  the  people  for- 
sook their  sins  and  sought  him  aright?  The  "  ark" 
was  now  to  them  no  more  than  "  a  charm."  When 
the  God  of  the  covenant  had  forsaken  them,  the  ark 
of  the  covenant  had  no  power  to  deliver.  Woe  to 
the  Church  that  bears  at  the  head  of  its  columns, 


2o8  Our  Children. 

**  an  ark,"  no  longer  consecrated  by  the  presence  of 
God  !  Woe  to  the  Church  that  clings  to  dead  fornix, 
not  knowing  that  the  life  has  gone  out  of  them  ! 

^'  So  the  people  sent  to  Shiloh,  that  they  might 
bring  from  thence  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  which  dwelleth  between  the  cheru- 
bim :  and  the  two  sons  of  Eli,  Hophni  and  Phinehas, 
were  there  with  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  God." 
An  ill  omen  this,  when  these  bad  men,  who  had 
"caused  the  Lord's  people  to  transgress,"  and  who 
had  made  them  to  "  abhor  the  offerings  of  God," 
came  bearing  the  "ark  of  the  covenant"  they  had 
broken  and  despised.  "  And  when  the  ark  of  the 
covenant  of  the  Lord  came  into  the  camp,  all  Israel 
shouted  with  a  great  shout,  so  that  the  earth  rang 
again."  If  Israel  had  known  her  duty  aright,  wails 
and  lamentations  would  have  rent  the  heavens,  and 
the  earth  would  have  been  wet  with  penitential 
tears.  Vain  was  the  shout  that  made  "  the  earth 
ring  again."  The  deserted  ark  had  no  power  to 
rally  their  broken  legions.  But  the  Philistines  were 
afraid  when  they  heard  the  unwonted  cheers,  and 
recalling,  perhaps,  the  prowess  of  Joshua,  of  Gideon, 
and  of  Samson,  the  chiefs  rallied  their  soldiers  and 
in  the  name  of  all  their  gods,  exhorted  them  to 
"  quit  themselves  like  men." 

And  they  joined  battle — terrible,  bloody  battle 
It  was  one  of  those  days  when  the  sorrowful  and 
sobbing  earth  opened  to  hide  the  blood  of  her  chil- 


Ichabod.  209 

dren.  "And  I  looked,  and  behold  a  pale  horse: 
and  his  name  that  sat  on  him  was  Death,  and  Hell 
followed  with  him."  "And  the  Philistines  fought, 
and  Israel  was  smitten,  and  they  fled  every  man  in- 
to his  tent :  and  there  was  a  very  great  slaughter ; 
for  there  fell  of  Israel  thirty  thousand  footmen." 

There  was  not  the  thunder  of  artillery  and  the 
rattle  of  musketry  to  hush  the  groans  of  the  dying, 
nor  sulphurous  smoke  to  hide  the  bloody  work  from 
the  face  of  the  sun  ;  for  they  fought  with  spears  and 
swords.  The  two  armies  emptied  their  quivers  and 
then  rushed  together  in  the  strife  and  agony  of 
hand  to  hand  conflict.  There  was  all  the  frenzy 
and  fierce  struggling  of  personal  combat.  Ere  the 
sun  went  down,  the  broken  lines  of  the  Hebrew 
army  were  slowly  and  sullenly  falling  back  before 
their  victorious  enemies. 

At  last  retreat  became  rout,  with  its  confusion 
and  madness,  helplessness  and  despair.  There  was 
sore  weeping  that  night  among  the  mothers,  and 
wives,  and  maidens  of  Israel — the  flower  of  their 
army  lay  dead  in  the  fields  of  Aphek,  in  the  tribe 
of  Issachar. 

What  a  sad  story  is  this!  It  is  woe  piled  on  woe. 
It  is  war,  defeat,  disaster,  rout,  and  thirty-  four 
thousand  brave  men  dead.  But  there  is  another 
shame  and  another  sorrow  awaiting  the  discom- 
fited army :  "  And  the  ark  of  God  was  taken  ;  and 

the  two  sons  of  Eli,  Hophni   and   Phinehas,  were 
14 


210  Our  Children.  * 

slain."  As  to  the  young  men  it  seems— since  they 
would  not  reform — better  that  it  were  so.  But  "  the 
ark  "  in  which  they  trusted,  that,  too,  is  gone. 

By  and  by  the  evil  tidings  reach  Shiloh — a  name 
prophetic  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  "  And  there  ran 
a  man  of  Benjamin  out  of  the  army,  and  came  to 
Shiloh  the  same  day  [it  was  nearly  forty  miles]  with 
his  clothes  rent,  and  earth  upon  his  head." 

Where  was  poor  old  Eli  that  day  of  grief  and 
wrath  ?  "  And  when  he  came,  lo,  Eli  sat  upon  a  seat 
by  the  way-side  watching  :  for  his  heart  trembled  for 
the  ark  of  God." 

The  panting  runner  ran  by  the  poor  old  man  and 
rushed  into  the  city.  *'  And  when  the  man  came 
into  the  city,  and  told  it,  all  the  city  cried  out.  And 
when  Eli  heard  the  noise  of  the  crying,  he  said, 
What  meaneth  the  noise  of  this  tumult  f*  And  the 
man  came  in  hastily  and  told  Eli.  Now  Eli  was 
ninety  and  eight  years  old ;  and  his  eyes  were  dim, 
that  he  could  not  see.  And  the  man  said  unto  Eli, 
I  am  he  that  came  out  of  the  army,  and  I  fled  to- 
day out  of  the  army.  And  he  said,  What  is  there 
done,  my  son?  And  the  messenger  answered  and 
said,  Israel  is  fled  before  the  Philistines,  and  there 
hath  been  also  a  great  slaughter  among  the  peo 
pie,  and  thy  two  sons,  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  are; 
dead,  and  the  ark  of  God  is  taken.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  when  he  made  mention  of  the  ark  of  God. 
that  he  fell  from  off  the  seat  backward  by  the  side 


Ichabod,  211 

of  the  gate,  and  his  neck  brake,  and  he  died :  for 
he  was  an  old  man,  and  heavy." 

Let  us  who  have  children  stand  by  the  gate  of 
Shiloh  and  consider.  Let  us  behold  old  Eli,  lying 
dead  by  the  side  of  the  gate.  God  Jias  "judged  his 
house,"  "  because  his  sons  made  themselves  vile  and 
he  restrained  them  not."  Unwise,  indulgent,  un- 
faithful, unhappy  Eli,  this  is  the  sad  end  of  your 
doting  fondness,  your  unfaithfulness  as  a  father  and 
a  priest,  your  indecision  and  timidity  as  a  judge. 
God  held  Eli  responsible  for  the  sins  of  his  children. 
He  will  so  hold  us.  O  !  fond  mother,  your  heart 
refuses  the  lesson  of  this  sad  tragedy,  and  you  say  to 
yourself,  "  But  my  sweet  prattler  can  never  be  bad 
like  the  sons  of  Eli."  Alas !  you  know  not  the  na- 
ture and  the  power  of  sin.  There  was  a  time  when 
these  dark  men — Hophni  and  Phinehas — were  as  in- 
nocent of  crime  as  the  fair  babe  that  smiles  on  your 
breast  and  looks  love  into  your  eyes.  They,  too, 
once  lifted  their  tiny  hands  in  the  evening  prayer, 
their  voices  joined  in  the  morning  song,  and  long 
before  Eli's  eyes  grew  dim  with  age  and  weeping, 
they  were  the  pride  of  his  heart  and  the  hope  of  his 
life.  The  sweetest  child  that  ever  looked  up  from  a 
fond  mother's  heart,  if  left  to  itself,  if  unrestrained 
by  parental  authority — unrenewed  and  unblessed  by 
the  grace  of  God  —  may  become  as  reprobate  as 
Hophni  and  Phinehas.  May  the  curse  that  fell  on 
Eli's  house  be  far  from  each  one  of  us  forever ! 


212  Our  Children. 

But  Eli  and  his  sons  fell  not  alone.  The  pious 
wife  of  the  apostate  and  dead  Phinehas  was  heart- 
broken by  these  sore  calamities.  "  And  his  daugh- 
ter-in-law, Phinehas's  wife,  was  with  child,  near  to 
be  delivered :  and  when  she  heard  the  tidings  that 
the  ark  of  God  was  taken,  and  that  her  father-in-law 
and  her  husband  were  dead,  she  bowed  herself  and 
travailed  ;  for  her  pains  came  upon  her.  And  about 
the  time  of  her  death,  the  women  that  stood  by  her 
said  unto  her.  Fear  not,  for  thou  hast  borne  a  son. 
But  she  answered  not,  neither  did  she  regard  it. 
And  she  named  the  child  Ichabod,  saying,  The  glory 
is  departed  from  Israel  ...  for  the  ark  of  God  is 
taken." 

"And  will  the  living  lay  it  to  heart?" 


PART    II. 

¥S5i  ^ii>ff)SY.0caooi<. 


N 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  MAGNITUDE  OF  THE  MOVEMENT. 

O  thoughtful  man  who  is  concerned  about  the 
welfare  of  the  Church,  or  of  the  State,  can  be 
indifferent  to  the  Sunday-school  movement  of  our 
times.  This  age  is  fruitful  in  notable  developments. 
Its  plans  are  projected  on  a  large  scale.  Nothing 
is,  perhaps,  more  unjust  or  foolish  than  the  habit  of 
a  certain  class  of  people  of  decrying  the  times.  It 
is  quite  useless  to  reason  with  these  people — they 
have  ''  made  up  their  minds."  They  are  sure  that 
the  ''  times  are  out  of  joint,"  that  the  ''  former  days 
were  better  than  these  days  "—Solomon  to  the  con- 
trary—that we  are  all— themselves  excepted — "  de- 
generate sons  of  noble  sires,"  that  every  thing  is 
going  to  the  bad.  Evidences  of  substantial  prog- 
ress make  about  as  much  impression  upon  them  as 
sunlight  upon  a  stone-blind  eye. 

One  thing  may  be  said,  without  injustice  or  want 
of  charity,  concerning  this  class  of  persons— they  do 
nothine  to  make  the  times  better. 


214  Our  Children. 

There  is  not  space  in  our  little  book  to  speak  in 
detail  of  the  evidences  of  the  substantial  progress  of 
our  times.  We  belong  to  that  hopeful  class  who 
believe  that  there  is  more  religion  in  the  world  now 
than  at  any  previous  period.  Undoubtedly  there 
are  more  Churches  and  more  professors  of  religion. 
There  are  more  Bibles  printed,  circulated,  and,  as 
we  firmly  believe,  read,  believed,  loved,  and  obeyed 
than  at  any  other  time  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Only  think!  The  precious  word  of  God  is  now 
printed  and  circulated  in  nearly  tJiree  hundred  oi  the 
babbling  tongues  of  our  race.  And  this  gift  of  life 
is  being  carried  to  all  nations.  The  '■'■  true  Light  "  is 
shining  in  many  of  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  : — 

••  Higher  yet  that  Star  ascends." 

There  were  never  so  many  missionary  organiza- 
tions as  now  ;  never  so  many  missionaries  in  the 
foreign  field ;  never  so  much  money  raised,  year 
after  year,  for  the  advancement  of  Christ's  kingdom; 
never  so  many  heathen  converted  to  God.  There 
were  never  so  few  professors  of  Christianity  opposed 
to  missions,  or  indifferent  to  them.  There  were 
never  so  many  good  books  in  circulation  ;  never  so 
many  periodical  publications  doing  battle  for  the 
truth.  The  press  was  never  so  subsidized  to  the 
uses  of  the  Christian  religion  as  to-day.  It  is  very 
true  that  the  agencies  of  evil  have  been  multiplied 
and  intensified.     The  devil  is  a  famous  copyist,  and 


The  Magnitude  of  the  Movement.  2 1 5 

it  has  always  been  his  practice  to  counterfeit  every 
"genuine  coin  in  circulation.  This  intensifies  the  an- 
tagonism  between  the  empires  of  light  and  dark-- 
ness ;  but  the  empire  of  light  is  wider  and  stronger. 
"  He  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under 
his  feet." 

One  reason  that  some  persons  imagine  the  world 
to  be  getting  worse  is  found  in  the  fact  that  our 
modern  appliances  for  collecting  intelligence  gath- 
ers up  and  publishes  every  thing — good  and  bad — 
that  is  going  on  in  the  world. 

The  telegraph  and  the  daily  paper  tell  us  every 
thing.  The  world's  wickedness,  as  well  as  its  good- 
ness, is  laid  bare  to  public  inspection.  But  the  fact 
that  we  see  and  hear  more  of  the  wickedness  that  is 
done,  is,  in  itself,  no  proof  that  more  is  committed. 
But  we  must  not,  at  this  place,  enter  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  these  many-sided  themes. 

As  already  intimated,  the  Sunday-school  move- 
ment is  one  of  the  most  notable  facts  of  our  times. 
So  far  as  the  formative  influences  that  enter  into 
the  determination  of  the  character  of  the  next  gen- 
eration are  concerned,  it  will,  perhaps,  be  agreed  by 
all,  that  the  Sunday-school  is  one  of  the  most  Jiotable 
facts  of  our  times.  Those  —  if  there  still  linger  a 
few  invincibly  obstinate  and  ignorant  doubters — who 
oppose  the  Sunday-school,  must  admit  its  impor- 
tance from  its  very  magnitude.  ^  o  matter  how 
much  or  how  little  of  good  may  be  in  this  move- 


2i6  Our  Children. 

ment,  its  magnitude,  if  nothing  else,  makes  it  a  mat- 
ter of  very  great  importance.  If  several  hundred 
thousand  grown  people  and  several  millions  of  chil- 
dren met  together  once  a  week  without  speaking  a 
word — if  they  only  looked  at  each  other  in  utter 
silence — we  should  have  a  subject  of  interest  and 
importance. 

Let  us  consider  briefly  some  of  the  leading  facts 
and  figures  connected  with  this  movement. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  every-wliere  in  our  country. 
Outside  of  some  of  the  most  recently  settled  terri- 
tories and  some  of  the  newest  railroad  stations  there 
is  hardly  a  county,  or  village,  or  hamlet  in  the 
United  States  without  a  Sunday-school.  With  few 
exceptions,  we  may  say,  wherever  there  is  a  Church 
there  is  a  Sunday-school. 

The  Secretary  of  the  International  Sunday-school 
Association  made  an  elaborate  and  carefully  pre- 
pared report  at  the  meeting  in 'Baltimore,  in  May, 
1875.  We  know  something  of  the  care  with  which 
the  statistics  of  his  report  were  gathered.  Most  of 
them  were  from  official  sources.  We  do  not  ques- 
tion that  they  are  in  the  main  as  reliable  as  any 
statistical  tables  prepared  for  public  consideration. 
They  aie  as  reliable  as  the  United  States  census  we 
do  not  doubt. 

Now,  we  have  long  ago  learned  that  all  statistics, 
covering  a  wide  field  of  observation,  are  to  be  re- 
ceived as  only  approximations  to  the  truth.     We 


The  Magnitude  of  the  Movement,  2 1 7 

do  not  belong  to  those  who  place  implicit  faith  in 
statistical  columns  and  schedules  All  philosophy 
is  not,  as  some  seem  to  think,  wrapped  up  in  these 
long  columns  of  bewildering  figures.  But  the  Sun- 
day-school statistics  referred  to  above  we  believe 
to  be  substantially  correct. 

How  many  Sunday-schools,  according  to  these 
tables,  are  there  in  the  United  States?  We 
copy  from  the  official  report.  The  secretary  says, 
69,871.  How  many  teachers  and  officers  are  en- 
gaged in  the  management  of  these  69,871  schools? 
The  secretary  says,  753,060.  How  many  scholars  are 
in  these  69,871  schools  and  under  the  guidance  and 
instruction — at  least  for  one  hour  on  the  Sabbath — 
of  these  753,060  officers  and  teachers?  The  secre- 
tary s-ays,  5,790,683. 

Counting  Canada  with  the  United  States,  there 
are  74,272  schools ;  788,805  officers  and  teachers ; 
6,062,064  scholars.  Most  of  these  scholars  are  chil- 
dren between  the  ages  of  six  and  fifteen  ;  nearly  all 
of  them  are  young  people  under  twenty. 

Counting  officers,  teachers,  and  scholars,  there  are 
engaged  in  Sunday-school  work  in  the  United  States 
6,543,743  persons ;  by  adding  Canada,  6,850,869. 
Reckoning  the  population  of  the  United  States 
as  being  about  40,000,000,  we  find  more  than  one 
seventh  of  our  entire  population  engaged  in  some 
way  in  the  Sunday-school  work.  These  naked  fig- 
ures indicate  a  movement  of  immense  magnitude 


21 8  Our  Children. 

and  power,  even  if  we  do  not  take  into  account  the 
character  of  the  movement  itself.  Now  what  is 
ostensibly  the  design  of  this  Sunday-school  move- 
ment? To  teach  God's  word  to  children  and  young 
people  in  order  to  bring  them  to  Jesus  Christ,  their 
King  and  Redeemer,  and  to  secure,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  their  salvation.  What  does  this  vast  army 
of  Sunday-school  *'  officers  and  teachers  "  do?  They 
bring  this  multitude  of  children  largely  under  their 
personal  influence.  How  do  they  spend  the  hour 
allotted  to  the  Sunday-school  on  the  Sabbath  day? 
In  singing,  in  praying,  in  teaching  the  Bible,  in  de- 
livering advice  and  exhortation  on  moral  subjects. 
Millions  of  books  are  given  out  and  millions  of  pa- 
pers distributed  every  week. 

What  tremendous  powers  are  here  at  work  !  These 
753,060  teachers  teaching  God's  word  and  will  to 
5,790,683  children!  And  these  songs,  prayers,  les- 
sons, exhortations,  these  children  never  will,  never 
can  forget.  They  will  be,  of  necessity  they  must  be, 
largely  influenced  by  these  agencies.  These  chil- 
dren are  forming  opinions  upon  the  most  important 
subjects  that  can  invite  their  attention — their  duty  to 
God  and  to  their  fellow-men.  Who  can  measure 
the  height  and  depth  and  length  and  breadth  of 
these  influences?  No  man  can  overstate  or  exag. 
gerate  their  magnitude,  their  power.  And  they  arc 
every-where. 

If  these  influences  are  evils,  there  are  no  greatei 


The  Magnitude  of  the  Movement.  219 

evils.      If   they   are   good,    there   are    few   greater 
blessings. 

Another  important  question  is  this :  What  is  the 
character  of  these  officers  and  teachers  —  in  the 
United  States  alone  753,060  of  them?  No  doubt 
many  of  them  are  far  below  what  they  ought  to  be. 
Many  of  them  are  ignorant  and  indolent.  Many  of 
them  are  lacking  in  both  zeal  and  knowledge.  But 
take  them  all  together,  the  Sunday-school  teachers 
are  among  the  best  people  in  the  Church.  There  is 
among  them  more  faith,  love,  zeal,  and  aggressive 
power  than  can  be  found  among  any  1,506,120  who 
are  outside  of  this  Sunday-school  movement.  We 
prefer  to  understate  rather  than  to  overstate  these 
things.  But  we  are  safe  in  saying  the  real  aggres- 
sive power  of  the  Church  is  found  among  these 
753,060  teachers  and  officers.  Take  them  as  a  body, 
we  venture  to  say  they  are  the  best  people  in  the 
Church.  And  they  are  the  most  intelligent.  They 
read  more,  study  more — particularly  in  the  Bible. 
And  most  of  them  are  in  earnest.  The  most  zeal- 
ous men  and  women  of  the  Church  are  engaged  in 
the  Sunday-school  work. 

We  say  again,  the  magnitude  of  the  Sunday- 
school  movement  entitles  it  to  thoughtful  consider- 
ation. Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  the  Sunday- 
school  is  a  fact — a  very  great  fact  among  us. 

No  doubt  there  is  now  and  then  an  outbreak  of 
fanaticism.     So  full  a  river  will  sometime  break  out 


220  Our  Children. 

of  its  banks,  but  fertility  follows  its  very  inunda- 
tions. Some  songs  are  sung  that  neither  poetry  nor 
piety  will  approve.  Some  things  are  taught  that 
are  not  true.  There  is  much  very  superficial  work. 
There  are  many  things  about  the  Sunday-school 
movement  that  are  not  altogether  satisfactory,  but  it 
is  the  most  notable — perhaps  also  the  most  hopeful 
• — fact  of  our  times.  It  will  have,  perhaps,  more  to 
do  in  making  the  future  of  our  civilization  than  any- 
thing else. 

If  we  would  estimate  the  magnitude  of  the  Sun- 
day-school movement  from  another  stand-point, 
consider  its  relations  to  the  press.  Several  of  the 
largest  publishing  houses  in  the  country  are  run  al- 
most exclusively  in  the  interest  of  Sunday-schools. 
A  distinct  sort  of  literature — "  Sunday-school  liter- 
ature " — has  sprung  up.  Scores  of  papers  and  mag- 
azines are  published  in  this  country  for  the  use  of 
teachers  and  scholars.  Their  circulation  is  immense 
— running  up  into  the  millions  monthly.  Millions 
of  dollars  are  invested  in  the  business  of  producing 
papers  and  books  to  meet  this  ever-growing  demand 
for  new  "  Sunday-school  literature."  The  demand 
is  always  ahead  of  the  supply. 

Some  people  speak  of  the  Sunday-school  as  a 
small  affair — fit  to  amuse  and  occupy  the  attention 
of  pious  young  women  and  of  extra  zealous  men. 
How  mistaken,  how  ignorant  they  are  !  For  wheth- 
er we  work  with  it,  or  against  it :  whether  we  like  it, 


The  Magnitude  of  the  Movement.  22 1 

or  dislike  it,  the  fact  remains,  the  Sunday-school  is 
an  institution  of  incalculable  power.  More,  it  is  a 
steadily  growing  power  —  the  current  widens  and 
deepens  every  day.  It  will  have  very  much  to  do 
with  the  controlling  influences  that  will  fashion  and 
fix  the  future  of  both  Church  and  State  in  our 
country. 

Is  the  Sunday-school  not  entitled  to  the  attention, 
respect,  sympathy,  and  co-operation  of  all  who  love 
either  the  country  or  the  Church — of  all  true  patri- 
ots and  of  all  true  Christians  ? 


222  Our  Children 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AUXH.IARY. 

IN  considering  the  true  sphere  and  work  ol  the 
Sunday-school,  one  thing  is  clear  to  begin  with, 
it  is  not  to  substitute  any  other  means  of  grace 
or  divinely  appointed  instrumentality  of  usefulness. 
The  sooner  this  is  distinctly  understood  and  defi- 
nitely recognized  on  all  hands  the  better,  every 
way,  for  all  the  great  interests  involved.  The  Sun- 
day-school, rightly  employed,  will  bring  many  con- 
tributions to  increase  the  efficiency  of  every  other 
means  of  grace  and  agency  of  usefulness,  but  it  takes 
nothing  from  any  of  them.  It  is  no  substitute  for 
the  day-school,  although  it  may,  in  a  degree,  supple- 
ment its  deficiencies  and  countervail  some  of  its  in- 
cidental evils.  It  is  no  substitute  for  th&  regular 
ministration  of  the  word  of  God  by  men  called  of 
him  to  preach  the  Gospel,  but  it  may  largely  in- 
crease the  resources  and  opportunities  of  the  gospel 
ministry  for  thorough  and  efficient  work.  It  is  no 
substitute  for  parental  government  and  instruction 
in  the  word  of  God,  but  it  may  greatly  aid  Christian 
fathers  and  mothers  in  bringing  up  their  children 
"in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 

The  true  conception  of  the  Sunday-school  is  this: 


The  Sunday-School  Auxiliary.  223 

it  is  auxiliary  to  every  other  divinely  appointed 
means  of  grace.  It  cannot  substitute  any  other,  for 
each  is  necessary.  As  it  seems  to  us,  it  is  of  very 
great  importance  that  those  who  labor  in  the  Sun- 
day-school should  understand  this  fundamental  truth 
— it  is  atixiliary.  To  attempt  to  make  it  other,  or 
more  than  this,  is  to  make  it  less.  If  it  be  not  an 
auxiliary — a  helper — it  is  worse  than  nothing;  it  is 
a  very  great  evil.  It  is  like  a  badly-adjusted  wheel 
in  a  complicated  system  of  machinery ;  it  develops 
friction  and  leads  to  breakage  and  ruin,  instead  of 
increasing,  or  regulating,  or  distributing  power. 

False  or  crude  opinions  at  this  point  are  at  the 
bottom  of  almost  all  the  troubles  incident  to  the 
management  of  Sunday-schools.  Once  let  a  super- 
intendent, or  teacher,  get  it  into  his  head  that  the 
Sunday-school  is  a  substitute  for  any  other  means 
of  grace,  and  he  makes  two  very  hurtful  mistakes  at 
once.  First,  he  places  the  Sunday-school  where  it 
does  not  belong,  and  requires  of  it  what  it  never 
can  do.  Secondly,  he  discounts,  or  subverts,  or  de- 
stroys some  other  means  of  grace  that  is  indispen- 
sable to  the  work  of  the  Church.  Even  to  discount, 
by  false  views  of  one  good  thing,  any  other  good 
thing  is  itself  a  great  misfortune. 

Let  us  illustrate  by  supposing  a  case  that  can 
never  occur.  Suppose  that  all  should  agree  that 
the  existence  and  work  of  the  Sunday-school  makes 
the  Gospel  ministry — the  regular  preaching  of  the 


224  Our  Children. 

word-  -no  longer  necessary;  and  suppose  that  the 
pulpit  should  give  place  altogether  to  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  Sunday-school  class ;  and  suppose  that 
we  have  no  more  preaching,  and  substitute,  once 
for  all,  the  preacher  by  the  teacher:  who  does  not 
know  that  this  would  destroy  the  Church  ? 

God  calls  men  to  preach  and  he  appoints  preach 
ing,  because  preachers  and  preaching  are  necessary 
to  the  work  he  intended  the  Church  to  do.  But  it 
may  be  said,  nobody  thinks  of  so  absurd  a  thing  as 
doing  away  with  the  pulpit — with  preachers  and 
preaching.  True  enough,  and  yet  there  are  many 
who  do  this  very  thing — perhaps  without  intending 
it  or  knowing  it — to  a  degree.  They  imagine  that 
the  Sunday-school  teacher  is  doing  the  work  of  the 
preacher,  and  that,  on  account  of  this  work,  the 
preacher's  work  is  no  longer  as  necessary  as  once  it 
was.  This  is  to  discount,  and  thereby  to  hinder, 
the  work  of  preaching.  But  this  is  as  injurious  as 
it  is  unwise  and  unscriptural. 

Let  us  take  another  illustration.  Suppose  that 
the  753,060  Sunday-school  teachers  in  the  United 
States  should  take  it  into  their  heads  that  they  are 
doing  the  work  of  parents — of  fathers  and  mothers 
— for  these  5,790,683  children  in  the  United  States 
that  listen  to  their  instructions  once  a  week,  and 
that,  in  some  sense,  they  substitute  parental  work 
• — instruction,  influence,  government,  discipline; 
and  suppose  the  parents  of  these   5,790,683   chil- 


The  Sunday-School  Auxiliary.  225 

dren  should  agree  with  this  view,  and  all  at  once  lay 
down  their  responsibilities,  cease  their  work,  with- 
draw their  influence:  what  then?  Such  a  course 
would  be  madness ;  its  result  would  be  ruin.  After 
that  the  deluge. 

But  nobody  proposes  this.  True  ;  and  yet  many 
Sunday-school  teachers  do  not  understand  aright 
that,  as  to  the  parental  functions,  the  Sunday-school 
is  simply  auxiliary.  And  many  parents,  it  is  to  be 
greatly  feared,  have  suffered  some  weakening  of 
their  sense  of  responsibility  in  the  rearing  of  their 
children  on  account  of  the  work  proposed  or  accom- 
plished by  the  Sunday-school.  But  this  is  a  griev- 
ous, a  most  hurtful,  mistake.  It  were  better  to  have 
no  Sunday-school  than  to  put  it  in  a  false  attitude 
to  other  instrumentalities  for  doing  good. 

We  have  made  special  mention,  in  this  connec- 
tion, of  the  work  of  the  gospel  ministry  and  of  the 
Christian  family,  because  these  are  the  two  great 
driving-wheels  through  which  God  moves  the  whole 
machinery  of  useful  agencies.  These  are  the  two 
divinely-ordained,  and,  therefore,  indispensable  in- 
strumentalities. When  the  Sunday-school,  or  any 
other  agency  or  influence,  interferes  with  the  normal 
functions  of  the  ministry  or  the  family,  it  is  out  of 
place  and  injurious.  Whenever  the  Sunday-school 
works  harmoniously  with  the  ministry  and  the  fam- 
ily it  is  in  its  place,  and  an  unspeakable  blessing. 

Suppose  the  water-power  that  moves  the  compli- 
15 


226  Our  Children. 

cated  machinery  of  a  great  factory  is  supplied  by 
two  streams  that  unite  before  they  descend  upon 
the  great  wheel,  through  which  every  smaller  wheel 
is  moved.  Suppose  now  a  third  and  smaller  stream 
should  be  brought  into  the  united  current  of  the 
other  two,  in  order  to  increase  the  power.  What 
now  would  be  the  true  relation  of  the  new  stream? 
An  auxiliary,  a  helping  relation.  It  is  this,  or 
worse  than  nothing. 

Suppose  it  could  move  on  to  make  the  plunge 
upon  the  great  wheel  independently  of  the  other 
two — that  one  of  them  should  be  stopped,  or  have 
its  volume  lessened  by  the  presence  of  the  third 
stream.     How  inevitable  the  result !     Disaster. 

The  third  stream  is  needed,  but  only  that  it  may 
swell  the  volume  and  increase  the  power  of  the 
other  two.  The  more  completely  it  is  merged  in 
them  the  better.  We  have  said  much,  in  anothei 
place  in  our  book,  about  the  relation  of  the  Chris- 
tian family  to  the  preservation  and  extension  of  re- 
ligion in  the  earth.  Much  might  be  said  upon  the 
relations  of  the  Christian  ministry  to  the  same  work 
Now  the  true  work  of  the  Sunday-school  is  that 
of  helper  to  these  two.  The  more  intimately  it  i* 
related  to  the  Christian  family  and  the  Christian 
ministry  the  better  for  all  interests  involved.  There 
is  no  Church  without  the  Christian  home  and  the 
Christian  ministry.  These  two  are  great  and  Divine 
institutes  for  the  salvation  of  the  world.     Welcome 


The  Surtday-School  Auxiliary.  227 

the  Sunday-school  when  it  is  a  true  helper  to  the 
Christian  home  and  to  the  Christian  ministry !  Away 
with  it  when  it  hinders  them,  or  discounts,  or  seeks 
to  substitute  them ! 

It  is  easy  to  apply  a  test.  Does  the  Sunday- 
school  make  the  preacher  less  zealous  or  useful? 
Then  there  is  something  wrong,  and  the  Church  of 
God  suffers  damage,  although  the  preacher  alone 
may  be  to  blame.  Does  it  make  the  father,  the 
mother,  less  careful,  less  conscientious,  less  anxious 
to  perform  their  sacred  parental  duties  for  the  salva- 
tion of  their  children  ?  In  this  case  also  there  is 
something  wrong,  and  the  Church  is  damaged,  al- 
though the  parents  only  may  be  to  blame.  What 
effect  is  produced  upon  the  mind  of  the  scholar? 
Does  the  Sunday-school  diminish  his  respect  and 
veneration  for  the  divinely-called  preacher  of  the 
Gospel  ?  Does  it  make,  in  any  way,  the  preaching 
of  the  word  less  profitable  to  him  ?  Then  there  is 
something  wrong,  and  the  managers  of  the  Sunday- 
school  are  to  blame.  Does  it  make  the  child  less 
obedient,  less  loving  to  its  parents?  In  this  case 
also  there  is  something  wrong,  and  the  Sunday- 
school  is  to  blame.  The  true  Sunday-school  will 
lead  children  to  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  office 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  will  prepare  them  for 
its  ministrations.  And  it  will  deepen  their  sense 
of  the  obligation  to  obey  and  to  reverence  their 
parents.     If  it  does  none  of  these  things  it  is  worse 


228  Our  Children. 

than  a  failure — it  is  a  hinderance  to  the  work  of 
God,  and  an  encumbrance  upon  the  energies  of  the 
Church. 

It  seems  to  us  too  plain  for  argument ;  the  Sun- 
day-school is  auxiliary  to  other  means  of  grace,  and 
it  is  nothing  else.  It  substitutes  nothing — it  can- 
not. It  is  to  bring  contributions  of  power  to  all 
Other  means  of  grace — especially  to  the  Christian 
home  and  to  the  Christian  ministry.  But  it  must 
take  nothing  from  these,  and  it  must  not  hinder 
them. 

In  substantiation  of  these  general  views,  it  may 
be  mentioned  here  that  more  and  more,  and  in  all 
quarters,  the  Sunday-school  is  being  recognized  as 
a  part  of  the  Church,  and  not  as  an  independent 
and  isolated  institution.  In  some  Churches  pro- 
vision is  made  for  the  government  of  the  Sunday- 
school  as  part  of  the  Church.  This  is  very  clearly 
recognized  in  the  book  of  Discipline  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South.  Among  the  duties 
of  the  Quarterly  Conference  we  find  this  item: 
*'To  superintend  the  interests  of  Sunday-schools 
and  the  instruction  of  children,  and  to  elect  super- 
intendents of  Sunday-schools  on  nomination  of  the 
preacher  in  charge."  And  this,  in  that  Church,  as 
proved  by  experience,  is  a  good  law. 

Among  the  questions  propounded  by  the  bishop 
to  those  who,  having  satisfactorily  finished  their 
probation,  are  about  to  be  ''  admitted  into  full  con- 


The  Sunday-School  Auxiliary.  229 

nection "  in  an  Annual  Conference  is  this :  "  Will 
you  diligently  instruct  the  children  in  every  place?" 
The  Discipline  enjoins  the  formation  of  Sunday- 
schools  in  all  the  congregations.  The  language  of 
the  Discipline  upon  the  entire  subject  shows  that 
the  Sunday-school  is  recognized  as  truly  a  part  of 
the  Church. 

At  this  place  we  may  quote  with  propriety  a  para- 
graph from  an  address  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Bishop 
H.  N.  MTyeire  before  the  Sunday-school  Conven- 
tion of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  that 
met  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  May,  1871.  Bishop 
M'Tyeire  said : — 

"  The  Sunday-school  is  of  the  Church ;  in  every 
way  it  has  been  so  recognized.  It  is  set  on  the 
Lord's  day ;  our  houses  of  worship  are  open  to  it, 
notwithstanding  they  have  been  set  apart  from  all 
unhallowed  or  common  uses  ;  in  General,  Annual, 
District,  Quarterly,  and  Church  Conferences,  its  in- 
terests are  inquired  into  and  its  affairs  regulated; 
ministers  are  detailed  for  its  agency  and  editorial 
department ;  its  statistics  are  displayed  every-where 
on  the  face  of  ecclesiastical  journals.  It  is  not  an 
alien  and  foreigner;  it  is  not  an  outside  friendly 
institution — it  is  nearer  than  that.  The  Sunday- 
school  is  the  catechetical  institute  of  the  Church. 
It  is  maintained  by  and  for  the  Church,  and  under 
the  Church's  control.  .  .  .  Let  the  Sunday-school 
be  kept  close  to  the  Church,  under  its  watchful  eye, 


230  Our  Children. 

near  its  warm  heart.  Let  the  pastor  of  the  parents 
remember  that  he  is  the  pastor  of  the  children,  and 
that  Sunday-schools  may  help,  but  cannot  super- 
sede him.  Let  him  be  seen  moving  often  among 
them,  thus  giving  aid,  and  assurance  of  his  interest. 
Bishop  Andrew's  last  Sunday  on  earth  saw  him  in 
the  Sunday-school.  Among  his  last  words  to  the 
preachers  were  these :  **  Take  care  of  the  children  • 
look  after  the  Sunday-schools.'  " 


The  Chief  h unction  of  the  Sunday-School.    231 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   CHIEF   FUNCTION   OF  THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

TEACHING  the  word  of  God  is,  as  we  judge, 
the  chief  function  of  the  Sunday-school. 
Speaking  through  his  servant  Moses,  God  said  to 
his  people :  "  Hear,  O  Israel :  the  Lord  our  God  is 
one  Lord  :  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  might.    And  these  words,  which  I  command 
thee  this  day,  shall   be   in   thine   heart :    and  thou 
shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and 
shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house, 
and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou 
liest   down,  and  when  thou  risest  up."     Here  we 
find  a  divine  statute  of  perpetual  obligation  upon  all 
heads  of  families.     If  it  were  obeyed  so  perfectly 
that  there  remained  nothing  more  to  teach,  it  does 
not  readily  appear  that  there  would  be   any  need 
of  Sunday-schools,  or  of  any  other  teaching  instru- 
mentality  for  imparting  to   children   a  knowledge 
of  God's    word.     If  we    ask    now   concerning   the 
true  work  of  the  Sunday-school,   or  of  any  other 
such    instrumentality    as    to    children,   we    answer 
by  asking,  What  does  God  require  to  be  done  for 
children?      The   words  of   Moses   make   this  very 


232  Our  Children. 

plain  :  "  And  thou  shalt  teach  them  dihgently  unto 
thy  children." 

This  involved,  of  necessity,  the  use  of  all  right 
means  for  making  the  knowledge  of  God's  words  a 
real  and  true  knowledge,  by  bringing  heart  and  life 
under  its  influence.  Now  what  God  requires  to  be 
done  for  children,  in  order  to  their  proper  nurture  in 
the  life  of  religion,  the  Sunday-school  should  at- 
tempt to  do. 

If  we  once  clearly  understand  what  we  consider  a 
very  plain  matter,  that  the  Sunday-school  substi- 
tutes no  other  instrumentality  for  doing  good,  but 
that  it  is  auxiliary  to  each  and  all  of  them,  we  will 
find  no  difficulty  in  determining  the  true  work  of 
the  Sunday-school.  In  order  to  secure  the  supreme 
love  of  his  people,  God  requires,  first,  that  his  words 
shall  be  in  their  hearts;  and,  secondly,  in  order 
to  secure  their  perpetuation  in  the  world,  they  shall 
be  taught  diligently  unto  their  children. 

There  are  many  useful  things  that  the  Sunday- 
school  may  do,  indirectly  and  incidentally.  It  is 
well  that  the  children  be  taught  to  sing  for  the  sake 
of  singing  itself.  But  it  is  especially  useful  if  they 
learn  to  sing  such  songs  as  contain  the  marrow  of 
the  Gospel,  and  celebrate  the  praises  of  God.  Alas  I 
that  much  of  the  singing  of  our  Sunday-schools  can- 
not be  approved  on  any  ground.  There  is  great 
danger  of  being  misled  right  here.  It  is  easy  to  in- 
terest children  in  singing,  and  it  is  certainly  desira- 


TJie  CJiief  Function  of  the  Sntiday-ScJiooL    233 

ble  to  do  so.  But  the  Sunday-school  must  be  very 
much  more  than  a  mere  singing-school.  Good  sing- 
ing is  desirable  and  delightful,  but  good  singing 
alone  is  no  right  measure  of  a  good  Sunday-school. 

Nor  are  mere  numbers  any  just  measure  of  the 
value  of  a  Sunday-school.  Some  of  the  very  best 
schools  we  ever  saw  were  among  the  smallest ;  while- 
some  of  the  very  poorest  were  the  largest.  We  have 
seen  large  schools  that  sang  well,  paid  money  well, 
drilled  well,  looked  well,  behaved  well,  where  teach- 
ers and  children  evidently  enjoyed  themselves  very 
much.  But  they  failed  in  teaching  God's  word — 
failed  just  where  it  was  most  important  to  succeed 
and  where  failure  was  most  fatal. 

We  must  insist  strenuously  on  this :  the  school 
that  does  not  teach  God's  word,  no  matter  what 
else  it  may  attempt  or  accomplish,  is  a  failure. 
As  to  the  great  end  designed  to  be  accomplished, 
there  can  be  no  two  opinions.  It  is  the  same  end 
that  is  sought  in  parental  instruction,  in  the  public 
preaching  of  the  word,  in  the  circulation  of  religious 
books  and  papers,  in  the  entire  machinery  of  the 
Church,  namely,  the  salvation  of  the  people.  Par- 
ents instruct  and  train  in  God's  word,  preachers 
proclaim  the  Gospel,  good  men  write,  and  print,  and 
publish  to  accomplish  this  one  thing — to  save  the 
people  from  their  sins.  No  lower  end  can  be  con- 
sidered for  a  moment.  This  thought  should  be  ever 
before  us. 


234  Our  Children. 

But  how  are  we  to  accomplish  this?  By  doing 
exactly  what  God  commanded  his  ancient  people, 
and  what,  as  truly,  he  now  commands  us  to  do — to 
teach  his  word  diligently  unto  our  children.  In- 
struction in  His  "  words  "  is  the  divinely  appointed 
means  for  inducing  repentance,  and  for  fostering  in 
his  children  the  life  of  faith  and  righteousness.  And 
we  cannot  do  God's  work  except  in  God's  way.  His 
way  is  best;  there  is  no  other  good  way.  He  allows 
us  no  short  cuts  of  human  invention  to  accomplish 
results.  The  shortest,  because  the  surest,  way  is  to 
do  just  what  God  requires,  and  not  somethine^else 
that  we  have  invented.  It  is  God's  word  that  tells 
us  not  only  how  to  be  good,  but  also  how  to  do 
good.  And  every-where,  and  always,  and  in  every 
thing,  God's  way  is  the  best  way. 

What  is  the  first  and  the  chief  direction  given  to 
those  who  would  bring  up  their  children  in  the 
*' nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  that  they 
may  '*  love  the  Lord  . . .  God  with  all "  their  "  heart  ?  " 
**And  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children."  Why?  Because  this  is  God's  appointed 
means  for  accomplishing  the  end.  Indeed,  we  can 
conceive  of  no  other  reason  for  giving  the  Bible  to 
men  but  that  its  lessons  should  lead  them  to  love 
God. 

We  would  insist  on  this  with  all  emphasis  and  in 
all  possible  ways.  Parents,  preachers,  teachers,  all 
who  propose  to  do  any  good  in  the  world,  should 


Tlie  CJiicf  Function  of  the  Sunday-School.    235 

remember  this  :  their  chief  business  is  to  teach  God's 
word.  Why  should  children  be  taught  the  word  of 
God  ?  Because  they  are  ignorant,  of  it  and  the 
knowledge  of  it  will,  if  they  will  hear  and  heed,  lead 
to  their  salvation.  And  it  is  the  only  knowledge 
that  does  save.  Whenever  we  find  a  person,  man 
or  child,  philosopher  or  peasant,  if  he  be  ignorant 
of  God's  word  and  we  would  do  his  soul  good,  we 
must  teach  him.  We  must  teach  him  what  he  is, 
what  God  requires  of  him,  and  what  he  has  done  for 
him. 

The  teaching  function  of  the  Sunday-school  must 
never  be  lost  sight  of — must  never  be  subordinated. 
When  we  do  this  we  abandon  the  original  charter; 
we  take  up  with  a  human  invention  instead  of  the 
divine  direction  on  this  subject.  Not  the  man  who 
talks  most  about  it,  but  the  best  teacher  of  God's 
word  is  the  best  Sunday-school  teacher.  And  the 
school  where  God's  word  is  taught  most  diligently, 
thoroughly,  and  effectively  is  the  best  school  of  all. 

There  is  no  danger,  if  we  understand  aright  what 
it  is  to  teach  the  word  of  God,  of  falling  into  the 
very  hurtful  error  that  it  is  a  mere  intellectual  drill 
— that  teaching  the  commandments  and  teaching 
the  multiplication  table  are  the  same  thing  in  their 
character,  and  require  only  the  same  qualities  and 
efforts.  A  heathen  child,  who  never  heard  of  God 
or  his  word,  may  be  easily  taught  the  multiplication 
table  by  one  who  is  as  ignorant  of  divine  things  as 


236  Our  Children. 

himself.  But  teaching  the  word  of  God  is  a  veiy 
different  thing,  and  done  under  very  different  condi- 
tions both  as  it  relates  to  the  teacher  and  the  learn- 
er. In  the  first  place,  the  child  makes  no  sort  of 
opposition  to  the  multiplication  table.  Tell  him 
that  "  twice  two  are  four,"  and  the  child  has  no  pos- 
sible objections  to  receiving  the  truth  of  what  it 
learns.  Tell  the  same  child  something  of  its  own  sins, 
of  the  necessity  of  repentance,  of  self-denial,  and 
we  will  find  that  in  this  child,  how  young  and  ten- 
der soever,  St.  Paul's  doctrine  holds  good  :  "  The 
carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God."  And  because 
the  "  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,"  it  is  al- 
ways true  that  there  can  be  no  effective  saving 
teaching  of  God's  word  and  of  the  plan  of  salvation 
without  the  blessing  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  as 
true  about  the  fireside  and  in  the  Sunday-school  as 
in  the  pulpit.  The  parent  who  teaches  well  prays ; 
so  does  the  Sunday-school  teacher  who  teaches  well ; 
so  does  the  preacher  who  preaches  well,  /le  prays. 
We  must  not  make  mistakes  here ;  to  teach,  we 
must  have  the  Spirit's  aid ;  to  secure  this  we  must 
pray  for  it.  And  how  precious  is  the  promise  that 
encourages  us  to  pray  for  the  influences  of  the  Holy 
Ghost !  ''If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give 
good  gifts  unto  your  children  ;  how  much  more 
shall  your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  him  ?  " 

We  may  begin  the  argument  where  we  will,  we 


The  Chief  Function  of  the  Stniday-School.     237 

must  ever  come  to  the  same  conclusion — teaching 
God's  word  is  the  chief  function  of  the  Sunday- 
school.  If  we  do  every  thing  else  and  omit  this  we 
have  failed. 

Let  us  meditate  upon  the  method  of  Ezra:  **So 
they  read  in  the  book  in  the  law  of  God  distinctly, 
and  gave  the  sense,  and  caused  them  to  understand 
the  reading."  This  is  a  perfect  description  of  the 
best  preaching.  And  this  is  exactly  what  we  all, 
who  have  any  thing  to  do  with  the  religious  instruc- 
tion of  the  people  —  adults  and  children  —  should 
strive  diligently  to  do. 

John  S.  Hart,  LL.D.,  in  his  admirable  work, 
**  The  Sunday-School  Idea,"  after  stating  clearly 
and  forcibly  that  ''  the  first  great  aim,  undoubtedly, 
is  to  bring  the  scholars  to  a  saving  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  secure  their  conversion,"  adds  some 
valuable  remarks  on  the  duty  of  thorough  indoctri- 
nation in  the  truths  of  religion.  We  quote  one  sug- 
gestive paragraph  :  "  We  must  aim  not  only  to  bring 
the  lambs  into  the  fold,  but  to  keep  them  there,  and 
to  give  them  due  nurture  and  protection.  The 
Sunday-school  is  an  agency  of  the  Church  specially 
suited  to  do  this  part  of  the  Christian  work.  The 
young  Christian  needs  to  be  thoroughly  grounded 
in  doctrine.  When  a  scholar  is  converted  and  joins 
the  Church,  our  work  with  him  is  just  begun.  We 
must  patiently  and  faithfully  teach  him  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Bible.     The  truths  of  the  Holy  Script- 


238  Our  Children. 

ures  are  the  aliment  by  which  the  Christian  grows. 
What  the  young  disciple  especially  needs  is,  not 
only  exhortation,  but  teaching.  The  pastor  who  is 
wise  will  spend  much  time  in  simple,  instructive  dis- 
courses, having  for  their  aim  to  build  up  the  young 
of  his  flock  in  sound  Christian  knowledge,  and  he 
will  regard  with  peculiar  satisfaction  those  of  his 
helpers  and  fellow-laborers  who  in  the  Sunday- 
school  carry  out  in  detail,  and  apply  to  personal  and 
individual  cases,  the  portions  of  doctrine  which  he, 
from  the  pulpit,  distributes  in  the  mass  and  to  the 
whole  congregation. 

*'  Nor  should  a  teacher  wait  till  a  child  is  converted 
before  beginning  to  instruct  him  in  the  truths  of  the 
Bible  and  the  duties  of  the  Christian  life.  The  doc- 
trines of  the  Bible,  it  should  be  remembered,  are 
not  only  useful  for  growth  in  grace,  but  they  are 
the  most  efficient  means  of  conversion.  While  the 
teacher  should  not  neglect  the  duty  of  personal  ap- 
peal and  exhortation,  yet  let  him  not  forget  that 
there  is  a  mighty  power  in  God's  word  to  pierce  the 
heart  and  conscience.  Let  him  unceasingly  plant 
this  divine  seed  in  the  minds  of  his  scholars.  It 
may  lie  long  before  it  is  quickened.  The  work  of 
grace  in  a  heart  thus  thoroughly  indoctrinated  in 
Scripture  truth  is  much  more  glorious  than  that  fit- 
ful excitement  wrought  by  mere  passionate  appeals 
to  the  feelings.  The  great  aim  of  the  Sunday-school, 
then,  is  the  conversion  of  the  young,  and  the  build- 


The  CJiief  Function  of  the  Sunday-School.     239 

ing  up  of  its  converts  in  holiness  of  heart  and  life, 
and  the  great  means  are  their  indoctrination  in  the 
truths  of  the  Bible." 

Some  years  ago  an  article  from  the  pen  of  the 
Rev.  W.  C.  Wilkinson  appeared  in  the  "  Sunday- 
School  Journal,"  which  we  introduce  entire.  Here 
are  useful  hints  for  parents  and  preachers  as  well  as 
teachers : — 

"  Teach  the  children.  Don't  try  to  move  their 
hearts,  at  least,  not  directly.  It  is  a  mistake  to  use 
the  emotion  which  you  have  excited  in  yourself  by 
thought,  by  study,  by  prayer,  as  the  chief  means  of 
exciting  emotion  in  your  pupils.  Emotion  begets 
emotion,  it  is  true,  but  it  is  the  emotion  of  sym- 
pathy that  is  thus  begotten.  What  you  want  is  the 
emotion  of  intelligence.  The  emotion  of  sympathy 
is  transient.  It  is  a  reflection  which  vanishes  when 
the  emotion  that  produced  it  is  withdrawn.  Be- 
sides, it  is  not  a  fruitful  emotion.  It  is  emotion, 
and  nothii.g  else.  It  even  tends  to  impoverish  in- 
stead of  enrich.  The  heart  is  not  fed — the  heart  is 
exhausted  by  it.  On  the  contrary,  the  emotion  of 
intelligence  is  as  durable  as  emotion  can  be,  or 
ought  to  be.  It  does  not  depend  upon  the  presence 
of  other  emotion  in  sotne  one  else.  It  springs  from 
within,  and  not  from  without.  It  is  a  product  of 
thought. 

*'  Therefore,  teach  the  children.  Feed  them  with 
knowledge.     Set  them  to  thinking.     Thinking  will 


240  Our  Children. 

make  them  feel.  Consider  how  you  yourself  came 
to  feel  as  you  do  in  .meeting  your  class.  You  had 
used  your  mind.  That  is  subject  to  your  will. 
Your  heart  is  not.  You  cannot  feel  by  willing  to 
feel,  but  you  can  think  by  willing  to  think.  And 
after  thinking,  with  thinking  feeling  comes  without 
willing,  nay,  against  willing  even. 

"  It  is  natural  to  want  a  straight  road  to  the  heart ; 
and  the  mind  lies  between.  You  must  not  seek, 
generally,  to  apply  your  own  emotion  to  awake 
emotion.  To  excite  emotion  in  another  without 
first  exciting  thought,  is  like  lighting  a  fire  without 
using  kindling.  Thought  is  the  kindling  for  setting 
emotion  in  a  blaze.  So  aim  to  lead  your  class 
through  a  course  of  thought  similar  to  that  by 
which  you  were  yourself  led  to  feeling  as  you  do. 

"  Teach,  brethren  and  sisters,  teach.  Again,  I 
say,  tcac/i.  Christ  was  a  teacher.  For  all  that 
appears,  he  was  himself  outwardly  calm  when  he 
taught.  He  trusted  to  the  truth.  You  must  trust 
to  the  truth.  Never  fear  but  if  you  reach  the  mind 
of  your  pupil  with  gospel  truth — gospel  truth,  re- 
member—the mind  in  turn  will  reach  the  heart  with 
it.  '  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth,'  was  Christ's 
prayer. 

"The  mind  is  the  heart's  mouth.  Thrust  truth 
into  the  child's  mind.  If  it  is  the  bread  of  life  to 
the  child,  it  will  not  stay  in  his  mind  ;  it  will  sink 
down   deeper.     It  will   go   to  his  heart.     And  the 


The  Chief  Function  of  the  Siinaay-ScJiool.     241 

hunger  of  the  heart  will  grow  by  what  it  feeds 
on  The  heart  will  crave  more  and  more  forever. 
*  Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness.'  Why?  Because  they  will  eventu- 
ally cease  from  hungering  and  thirsting  after  right- 
eousness ?  Not  at  all.  That  would  be  no  blessing. 
It  would  be  a  curse.  But  because  they  shall  be 
filled,  and  keep  on  hungering  and  thirsting,  to  be 
filled  again  and  again.  Feed  the  sheep.  Feed  the 
lambs.  Truth  is  the  bread  of  life.  The  mind  is  the 
mouth   to   the   heart.     Put   truth   into   the   mind. 

Teach,  teach,  teach ! " 
Id 


242  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WHO  SHOULD  BE  IN  THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL? 

MANY  young  people  are  of  the  opinion  that 
only  little  children  should  be  expected  to 
attend  Sunday-school,  at  least  as  regular  scholars. 

*'  How  shall  we  retain  our  larger  boys  and  girls?" 
is  a  question  that  has  been  very  largely  discussed. 
Every-where  we  have  the  complaint — our  larger 
scholars,  especially  the  boys,  leave  us.  This  seems 
to  us  to  be  a  very  great  evil.  Our  boys  leave  us 
just  when  they  ought  to  do  their  most  profitable 
Bible  study.  This  is  a  great  loss  to  them  and  to 
the  schools  they  leave.  And  what  is  worse,  they 
drift  away  with  bad  company  we  know  not  whither. 

In  considering  this  problem  we  have  raised  in  our 
mind  another  question,  Should  we  not  revise  our 
notions  on  this  whole  subject  of  proper  persons  for 
Sunday-school  work  and  instruction  ? 

Up  to  this  time  most  persons  have  thought  of  tnc 
Sunday-school  only  as  a  place  where  mere  children 
can  be  taught  the  primary  truths  of  religion.  If  our 
larger  sons  and  daughters  have  concluded  that  the 
Sunday-school  is  simply  a  proper  enough  place  for 
little  children,  we,  their  elders,  who  have  under- 
taken to  expound  to  them  the  Sunday-school  idea, 


M'^/io  Should  Be  in  the  Sunday-School  f       243 

are  responsible.  For,  what  is  the  drift  of  nearly 
all  we  say  and  write  on  the  subject?  That  it  is  a 
good  place  for  children,  especially  little  children. 
We  call  it  the  "  nursery  of  the  Church,"  and  we 
often  manage  the  matter  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
it  very  doubtful  what  we  mean  by  "  nursery."  * 
Very  often  the  songs  that  are  sung,  the  speeches 
that  are  made,  the  papers  and  books  that  are  circu- 
lated, are  only  fit  for  the  nursery;  "Mother  Goose 
Stories,"  with  the  imprimatur  of  the  Church. 

We  grant  readily  that  the  Sunday-school  is  pecul- 
iarly adapted  to  children ;  we  know,  too,  that  it  is 
far  easier  to  secure  their  attendance  and  to  excite 
their  interest  than  that  of  the  older  ones.  Why  is 
this?  There  may  be  many  reasons,  some  of  them, 
doubtless,  growing  out  of  the  restlessness  and  impa- 
tience of  restraint  that  belongs  to  adolescent  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  But  for  this  much-to-be- 
deplored  state  of  things  there  is  a  reason  in  us  and 
in  our  methods  of  dealing  with  our  young  people. 
We  are  at  fault.  We  do  not  meet  the  wants  of 
these  larger  ones  as  we  do  the  wants  of  the  little 

*  "  Nursery,  2.  The  place  where  nursing  is  carried  on  ;  as,  (a.)  Tlie 
place,  or  apartment,  in  a  house,  appropriated  to  the  care  of  children. 
{b^  A  place  where  yourg  trees  are  propagated  for  the  purpose  of  be- 
ing transplanted  ;  a  plantation  of  young  trees,  (r.)  The  place  where 
any  thing  is  fostered  and  growth  promoted.  '  To  see  fair  Padua, 
nursery  of  arts.' — Shakspeare.  '  Christian  families  are  the  nurseries 
of  the  Church  on  earth,  as  she  is  the  nursery  of  the  Church  in  heav- 
en,'—y.  M.  J//^j^«."— Webster. 


244  Our  Children. 

ones.  Our  opinion,  in  short,  is  this:  If  our  schools, 
in  their  methods  and  appHances,  were  as  well  adapt- 
ed to  the  wants  of  our  children  just  blooming  into 
adult  life  as  they  are  to  our  little  children,  then  we 
would  not  lose  the  larger  ones. 

Take  one  case  only  for  illustration — the  papers 
that  are  distributed  from  Sunday  to  Sunday ;  for 
whom  are  these  papers,  for  the  most  part,  intended  ? 
The  little  ones — generally  speaking,  for  those  under 
fourteen  years  old.  But  boys  and  girls,  nearly 
grown,  soon  tire  of  the  "Sunday-School  Visitor," 
and  ''  Child's  World,"  and  "  Children's  Guide,"  and 
*'  Sunday-School  Advocate,"  and  '^  Kind  Words," 
and  such  like.  Excellent  as  these  papers  are  for 
mere  children,  they  are  not  what  the  larger  ones 
want.  And,  in  most  schools,  there  is  nothing  that 
meets  the  wants  of  our  young  people.  The  same 
state  of  things  exists,  to  a  large  extent,  in  our  Sun- 
day-school libraries. 

We  go  farther,  without  discussing  the  matter  here : 
for  the  most  part,  our  teachers  in  charge  of  Bible- 
classes  do  not,  in  their  own  studies,  keep  up  with 
the  development  of  the  young  people  who  look  to 
them  for  instruction.  But  they  ought,  they  must, 
keep  in  advance.  It  is  a  fatal  day  when  the  class 
discovers  that  the  teacher  is  dropping  behind  in  in- 
terest, in  information,  in  application. 

After  long  and  patient  reflection  on  this  whole 
subject,  we  conclude — and  we  are  glad  to  know  that 


W/io  Should  Be  in  the  Sunday-School.       245 

we  are  not  alone  in  the  opinion — that  we  should 
conceive  of  the  Sunday-school  as  the  school  of  the 
whole  Church.  Some  have,  indeed,  proposed  to  call 
it  "  Bible  School."  But  we  do  not  see  very  clearly 
how  this  would  remedy  the  evil  we  are  now  con- 
sidering. 

All  should  be  in  the  Sunday-school — as  scholars 
or  as  teachers.  What  reason  can  be  given  why  an 
old  member  of  the  Church  should  not  be  a  member 
of  the  Sunday-school  ?  Why  should  not  the  oldest, 
and  wisest,  and  saintliest  man  in  the  Church  be  a 
scholar  in  the  Sunday-school,  if  he  should  not  be 
needed  as  a  teacher?  We  can  think  of  but  one  rea- 
son, and  that  would  not  be  good  could  it  exist.  And 
it  never  did,  never  will  exist.  If  we  could  find  a 
man  who  had  learned  so  much  of  God's  word  that 
there  is  no  more  in  it  to  learn,  we  might  excuse  him 
so  far  as  his  need  of  instruction  is  concerned.  But 
such  a  wonder,  such  a  solitary  phenomenon,  would 
be  under  peculiar  obligation  to  attend  regularly 
and  promptly  to  show  what  can  be  done  by  diligent 
and  continued  study! 

Now,  why  should  a  child  go  to  Sunday-school? 
To  learn  God's  word,  that  he  may  grow  thereby  ''in 
grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  For  the  very  same  reasons  a  grown  man, 
however  wise,  however  good,  unless  he  can  become 
no  wiser  and  no  better,  should  attend  the  Sun- 
day-school.    For  the  wisest  and   best   need   to  be 


246  Our  Children. 

enlightened  and  strengthened  in  spiritual  things. 
And  the  wisest  and  best,  of  all  others,  most  clearly 
see  their  ignorance  and  most  keenly  feel  their  de- 
ficiencies. 

It  is  only  the  incorrigible  egotist  or  the  self-satis- 
fied Pharisee  who  does  not  lament  his  lack  of  knowl- 
edge and  his  immaturity  in  grace. 

We  cannot  conceive  of  a  single  objection  to  mak- 
ing the  Sunday-school  a  Bible-school  for  the  whole 
Church  and  congregation  that  cannot  be  easily  met 
and  answered. 

Such  an  attendance  would,  indeed,  overflow  many 
of  our  Churches.  But  they  could  be  built  larger, 
or  the  congregation  could  "swarm"  as  the  wise 
bees  do,  when  overcrowded,  and  colonize  in  new 
quarters. 

As  things  are  now  in  many  of  our  communities, 
there  certainly  needs  to  be  a  readjustment  of  our 
plans.  We  could  name  scores  of  churches  where 
the  following  state  of  things  exists :  the  house  is 
filled  with  children  at  nine  o'clock,  and  filled  with 
grown  people  at  eleven  o'clock.  Three-fourths  of 
the  children  are  absent  from  preaching,  and  three- 
fourths  of  the  adults  were  absent  from  the  Sunday- 
school.  In  many  cases,  indeed  —  if  the  preacher 
happen  to  be  unattractive — a  larger  congregation  is 
seen  going  from  the  Church  when  the  Sunday-school 
is  dismissed  than  is  seen  going  to  it. 

What    is   to   be   done   about   this   matter?      We 


W/io  Should  Be  in  the  Sunday-School.       247 

nave  slept  over  it  long  enough.  When  the  chil- 
dren are  not  at  the  public  worship  of  God  with 
the  congregation,  when  they  do  not  attend  the 
preaching  of  the  word,  something  is  wrong,  very 
wrong.  And  it  ought  to  be  remedied.  If  there 
were  no  alternative  and  we  had  to  choose  between 
the  two,  we  would  say,  the  children  should  attend 
the  preaching  of  the  word  even  if  they  do  not  go  to 
Sunday-school. 

So,  as  the  matter  now  stands,  we  have  two  serious 
evils  to  meet :  the  larger  children  do  not  go  to 
Sunday-school,  and  the  smaller  children  do  not  go  to 
Church.  This  is  a  most  unsatisfactory  state  of 
things.  The  larger  ones — our  almost  grown-up  chil- 
dren— ought  to  be  in  Sunday-school,  and  our  young- 
er children  ought  to  attend  public  worship  with  the 
congregation.  This  double  trouble  is  very  largely 
the  fault  of  us  who  are  older — parents  and  preach- 
ers, superintendents  and  teachers — who  have  talked 
about  the  Sunday-school  and  managed  it  as  if  it 
were  intended  only  for  little  children,  and  have  con- 
ducted public  worship  as  if  that  were  intended  only 
for  adults. 

What  remedy  have  we?  It  seems  to  us  to  lie  in 
two  directions.  First,  we  should  try  as  hard  in  the 
Sunday-school  to  meet  the  wants  of  our  young  peo- 
ple as  we  do  the  wants  of  our  children.  We  must 
make  the  Sunday-school  as  interesting  and  useful  to 
the  adolescents  as  to  the  infants.     Secondly,  let  us 


248  Our  Children. 

drop  the  ''  nursery  "  idea  for  a  while.  It  has  done 
good  service  and  deserves  superannuation — at  least 
retirement — that  it  may  rest,  with  *'  Washington's 
hatchet,"  for  instance. 

Let  us  quit  talking  of  the  Sunday-school  as  if  we 
thought  it  only  a  fit  place  for  little  ones.  Let  us 
have  something  in  it  besides  nursery  rhymes,  side- 
shows, magic  lanterns,  scene-shifting,  little  ''  wee- 
bit  "  papers,  with  pictures  of  nice  children  and  good 
dogs — all,  perhaps,  more  or  less  excellent  in  their 
way.  But,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  let  us 
have  something  else — something  that  will  be  to  the 
older  ones  what  the  little  papers  and  other  such 
things  are  to  the  little  ones. 

But  in  dropping  for  awhile,  or  retiring  to  the 
back-ground,  the  ''  nursery "  idea,  let  us  who  are 
neither  children  nor  young  people,  let  us  who  are 
their  fathers,  mothers,  uncles,  and  aunts,  march  eji 
masse  into  the  Sunday-school  and  do  what  would  be 
an  unspeakable  advantage  to  us — study  and  teach 
the  word  of  God.  If  we  will  do  this  our  older  sons 
and  daughters  will  go  to  Sunday-school  and  our 
younger  ones  will  go  to  Church.  He  was  right  who 
at  a  convention  answered  the  question,  ''  How  shall 
we  retain  our  young  people  in  the  Sunday-school?" 
by  saying,  *'  Put  the  old  people  between  them  and 
the  door."  We  cannot  enumerate  or  overstate  the 
blessings  that  would  follow  such  a  general  study  of 
the  Bible  as  our  view  of  the  subject  involves.     Let 


JV/io  Should  Be  in  the  Stcnday-SchooL       249 

die  Sunday-school  be  the  Bible-school  of  the  Church, 
of  the  whole  Church. 

We  have  one  simple  argument  to  offer  as  to  the 
practicability  and  usefulness  of  the  plan.  It  has 
been  tested  and  proved.  We  have,  here  and  there,  a 
fev/  v,'ell-attended,  well-conducted  adult  classes.  We 
have  seen  grandfathers  in  them.  One  class  we  could 
name  of  nearly  a  dozen  where  nearly  all  were  over 
fifty  years  old.  And  for  this  class  there  was  no  hap- 
pier or  more  profitable  hour  during  all  the  week 
than  the  hour  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  Sun- 
day morning.  They  studied  their  lessons  and  their 
teacher  studied  them.  Perhaps  we  should  call  him 
the  conductor  of  the  lesson,  as  all  were  pupils  and 
all  were  teachers — '*  both  hearing  and  asking  him 
questions,"  as  they  felt  inclined. 

What  these  old  men  did  others  can  do. 

Why  did  they  go  to  Sunday-school  ?  They  wished 
to  learn  more  of  God's  word,  and  found  it  useful,  for 
its  good  fellowship  and  mutual  aid,  to  study  in  a 
class. 

How  did  they  manage  to  succeed  so  well?  In 
the  first  place,  they  got  up  soon  enough  to  go. 
This  is  quite  important.  People  who  lie  in  bed  till 
nine  o'clock  Sunday  morning  will  not  be  in  Sunday- 
school  at  that  hour.  These  old  gentlemen  really 
wanted  to  go — found  pleasure  and  profit  in  going — 
and,  therefore,  determined  that  they  would  go.  It 
',vas  a  part  of  their  plan  for  Sunday  morning  and 


250  Our  Children. 

and  they  took  pains  to  work  it  out  faitli  fully.  When 
the  bell  rang  these  old  gentlemen  put  on  their  hats 
and  we7it. 

This  is  the  way  they  managed.  It  is  so  simple  a 
plan  that  we  fear  it  will  not  be  popular.  But  it  was 
effective,  nevertheless. 


Hunting  Plans,  251 


CHAPTER  V. 

HUNTING    PLANS. 

WE  received  a  letter  once  from  which  we  may 
make  a  short  extract  here  : — 

"  I  am  anxious  to  succeed — to  do  my  full  duty 
to  the  dear  children  of  the  school ;  but  I  sadly  fear 
that  I  have  not  the  best  plan  for  conducting  the 
school — of  gaining  attention,  enlisting  interest,  in- 
ducing study,  etc.  I  hear  of  so  many  plans — so 
many  devices  for  amusing  and  interesting  the  chil- 
dren. Brother  A.  of  D.  does  this,  and  Brother  R. 
of  G.  this,  ami  they  are  very  different.  What  shall 
I  do  ?  Why  don't  you  tell  us  just  how  to  conduct 
the  Sunday-school?" 

Of  course  we  did  not  "  prescribe "  for  his  case, 
except  in  a  very  general  way.  Part  of  our  answer, 
however,  may  be  useful  in  this  chapter  of  our 
discussion. 

"  There  are  hundreds,  dear  brother,  in  like  per- 
plexity. Sunday-school  journals  are  full  of  such 
questions  and  attempted  answers.  The  Sunday- 
school  conventions  often  have  what  they  call  the 
'  question  box,'  into  which  all  sorts  of  questions  are 
thrust.  Some  one  who  is  supposed  to  know  every 
thing  about  Sunday-schools  is  appointed  to  open  the 


252  Our  Children. 

box  and  answer,  without  falling,  or  even  hesitating, 
right  then  and  there,  whatever  comes  up.  We  have 
watched  one  such  answerer  of  hard  questions,  who 
looked,  when  he  opened  the  box,  as  wise  as  one 
supposes  an  ancient  priest  of  Jupiter  must  have  ap- 
peared when  inspecting  the  entrails  of  the  slain 
victims,  or  when  watching  the  flight  of  wild  geese, 
to  determine  future  events — as  wise  as  an  owl.  His 
answers  to  all  sorts  of  questions  were  so  compla- 
cently confident  that  It  would  have  been  almost 
an  insult  to  have  applied  to  him  Sidney  Smith's 
witticism  on  the  learned  Dr.  Whewell.  *  Whew- 
ell's  forte,'  said  the  wit,  '  is  science ;  his  foible  is 
omniscience.' 

''  We  cannot  say  how  we  have  wondered  at  the 
courage — audacity,  perhaps,  is  the  befter  word — of 
such  an  oracle  ;  telling  twenty  different  superintend- 
ents how  to  manage  their  schools,  as  coolly  and 
unhesitatingly  as  a  broker  tells  the  price  of  gold 
or  bonds.  And  he  did  it  with  a  certain  epigram- 
matic flourish,  that  snapped  like  a  silk  cracker  to  a 
stage-driver's  whip.  As  if  he  knew  any  thing  about 
the  peculiarities  of  these  various  schools !  It  is. 
preposterous. 

''Some  people  call  such  'replies'  to  the  conun- 
drums  of  the  question  box  the  '  practical '  pari  of  a 
Sunday-school  convention.  For  our  part,  we  pro- 
nounce these  off-hand,  yet  'cut  and  dried,'  answers 
to  be  of  all  things  the  most  impracticable.     Often 


Hunting  Plans.  253 

these  so-called  answers  are  not  the  expression  of 
even  one  man's  experience  ;  your  convention  oracle, 
who  can  answer  questions  faster  than  did  that  su- 
perb old  humbug  at  Delphi,  not  being  every  time  a 
Sunday-school  man  at  all,  except  as  he  talks  the 
subject  up  or  down,  as  the  case  may  be.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  man  who  volun- 
teers answers  to  all  sorts  of  questions  knows  what 
he  is  talking  about.  A  strange  fatality  seems  often 
to  seal  the  lips  of  those  who  really  know  how  to  do 
things.  But  this  is  not  so  strange  to  us  as  the  un- 
failing eloquence  of  those  who  do  not  know  how  to 
do  any  thing. 

"  We  shall  never  forget  a  notable  planter's  con 
vention,  that  met  in  a  southern  city  some  years  ago. 
There  were  not  less  than  two  hundred  of  the  most 
sagacious  and  successful  planters  in  the  country  in 
the  convention ;  but  the  chief  speakers  were  three 
fluent  gentlemen  who  had  a  State  reputation  for  be- 
ing unsuccessful  in  whatever  they  had  undertaken — • 
a  preacher,  an  ex-politician,  and  an  editor.  Which 
was  the  greatest  genius  was  hard  to  determine.  But 
neither  of  them  knew  what  every  body  else  knew — • 
that  they  were,  in  spite  of  all  their  genius  for  fine 
theorizing  and  fine  talking,  very  impracticable  vis- 
ionaries. We  suppose  that  neither  one  of  theni 
could  make  a  living  on  the  best  farm  in  the  land- 
But  they  could  speak.  And  speak  they  did,  long 
and  often,  and  with  a  persuasive  eloquence  that  won 


254  Our  Children. 

applause  at  least,  and  made  men  who  had  grown 
rich  on  poor  land  ashamed  to  tell  what  sort  of  plows 
they  used. 

*'  What  is  the  moral  of  this  story  ?  Why,  dear 
brother,  that  you  are  not  to  carry  home  from  the 
next  convention  you  attend,  or  to  gather  out  of  the 
next  over-confident  article  you  may  read,  a  whole 
armful  of  new  plans,  devices,  notions,  tricks,  and 
charms,  'warranted  to  cure  all  diseases'  known  to 
Sunday-schools." 

Now  in  the  face  of  all  this  we  are  going  to  ven- 
ture something  like  an  answer  to  our  perplexed 
brother's  hard  questions. 

I.  "What  shall  I  do?"  he  asks. 

A7iszuer,  Do  your  best,  not  somebody  else's  best. 
You  can't  be  Brother  A.  of  D.,  and  Brother  A. 
can't  be  you.  And  your  schools  are  as  different  as 
their  superintendents.  The  same  plan  does  not  suit 
all  soils.  Moreover,  if  you  attempt  to  imitate  A.  or 
R.,  you  will  be  sure  to  catch  their  weak  points,  and 
apt  to  miss  their  strong  ones.  Remember  David, 
who  would  not  fight  with  Saul's  armor  because  he 
had  not  ''proved  it."  He  could  do  better  with  his 
sling  than  with  the  king's  sword  and  spear,  his  shield 
and  his  helmet.  But  Saul,  may  be,  could  not  have 
used  the  shepherd-boy's  sling  at  all.  Most  likely 
he  would  have  missed  the  giant,  big  as  he  was,  and 
given  his  own  head  a  hard  rap  into  the  bargain. 

To  be  sure,  you  are  to  find  out  how  others  do — • 


Hunting  Plans.  255 

how  they  fail  as  well  as  how  they  succeed.  But 
"  prove  all  things  ;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good." 

2.  "  Why  don't  you  tell  us  just  how  to  conduct 
the  Sunday-school?" 

Answer.  We  are  too  far  off.  We  would  have  to 
attend  your  school  and  work  in  it  a  month,  for  a 
full  month,  as  superintendent,  before  we  could  know 
it  well  enough  to  guess  at  a  solution  of  your  par- 
ticular difficulties.  Managing  Sunday-schools  and 
putting  up  prescriptions  are  quite  different  things. 
The  chemist  has  his  acids  and  alkalies  and  such  like. 
He  can  follow  the  formula  and  is  sure  of  the  result. 
It  is  always  the  same.  But  even  he—  if  he  be  nei- 
ther fool  nor  knave — would  hesitate  if  called  on  to 
put  up  a  complicated  prescription,  combining  new 
and  unknown  elements,  for  an  unknown  ailment, 
prescribed  for  by  clairvoyance.  You  have  seen  some 
of  these  wretched  humbugs,  pirates  upon  human- 
ity, sailing  under  medical  flags  they  have  stolen. 
Sometimes  you  see  their  pretentious  advertisements, 
proposing  by  clairvoyance  to  make  in  New  York 
an  infallible  diagnosis  of  some  mysterious  disease  in 
Texas,  and  to  prescribe  a  certain  and  speedy  cure. 

Now  did  we  even  know  exactly  what  is  the  matter 
with  your  school,  and  did  we  know  exactly  what  to 
prescribe,  you  would  not  find  it  like  putting  up 
prescriptions  in  a  drug  store.  Those  who  manage 
teachers,  and  parents,  and  children,  and  who  must 
themselves  be  managed,  bannot  work  by  exact  for- 


256  Our  Children. 

mulae.  Therefore,  we  can't  tell  you  "just  how  to 
conduct"  your  school;  and  no  man  who  has  good 
sound  sense  will  try. 

But  we  may  offer  you  a  few  hints  in  quite  a  gen- 
eral way. 

I.  You  are  in  earnest.  This  is  well;  it  is  essen- 
tial. If  you  are  not  in  earnest,  we  advise  you  and 
beg  you  to  resign  at  once.  If  you  are  not  in  ear- 
nest, the  only  service  you  can  do  your  school  is  to 
resign.  Would  that  more  men  had  this  grace  to 
resign  when  they  are  not  in  earnest,  or,  being  in 
earnest,  have  the  misfortune  to  occupy  wrong  posi- 
tions !  The  wrong  man  in  the  right  place  is  a  very 
unsatisfactory  person.  But  you  are  in  earnest,  and 
there  is  hope  and  the  promise  of  great  success  in  be- 
ing in  earnest.  We  have  not  yet  learned  the  power 
there  is  in  downright  earnestness.  It  can  work  im- 
possibilities— to  those  who  are  not  in  earnest. 

The  school,  dear  brother,  ought  to  rest  on  your 
heart  till  you  feel  it.  But  take  kindly  a  well-meant 
caution ;  dont  fret  over  your  school.  Worry  is 
much  worse  than  work.  Worry  often  kills  men, 
work  seldom.  We  have  known  many  preachers  fail 
by  being  over-anxious  to  succeed.  One  case  we  re- 
member quite  distinctly.  A  brother — a  man  ot 
gifts,  graces,  and  energy — was  appointed  to  a  most 
responsible  charge.  He  ought  to  have  succeeded 
and  would  have  done  so  had  he  known  how  to 
manage  himself.     He  started  at  his  very  best,  and 


Hunting  Plans.  257 

strained  himself  lame  trying  to  surpass  his  best 
speed.     He  was  soon  ''knocked  up." 

We  inquired  after  him  of  a  friend  who  understood 
tlie  case,  "  How  is  Brother getting  on?" 

Our  friend  answered,  "  You  have  seen  a  picture 
ol  a  race-horse  on  the  course?" 

*'  Yes." 

*'  Did  you  observe  that  his  ears  were  laid  back, 
and  that  his  head  and  tail  were  both  straight,  and 
about  on  a  level  with  each  other?" 

"Just  so." 

"  Well,  that's  the  way  Brother is  ;  he  is  fail- 
ing because  he  is  trying  so  hard  to  succeed." 

And  it  was  so — he  exhausted  himself  with  his 
anxieties. 

The  best  advice,  for  such  a  case,  we  ever  received 
was  from  a  certain  bishop,  honored  and  beloved.  We 
were  entering  upon  a  work  that  we  were  afraid  of — 
it  was  too  heavy  for  us.  He  saw  the  apprehension 
that  tried  us,  and  one  day  he  said,  *'  I  want  to  give 
you  some  advice."  We  fairly  jumped  with  joy. 
We  wanted  advice  above  all  things,  and  from  hnn 
above  all  men.  Sitting  down  by  him,  our  willing 
soul  waited  for  the  words  of  wisdom.  We  were  in 
for  an  hour's  talk.     This  is  what  he  said — all  of  it : 

"  Go  to .    Do  your  work  the  best  you  can.    Trust 

God,  and  don't  worry  about  success." 

The  more  we  pondered  his  words  the  wiser  they 

seemed  to  us.     They  were  providential.     We  took 
17 


258  Our  Children. 

his  advice,  did  our  best,  trusted  God,  and  did  not 
worry  about  success.  One  result,  at  least,  was,  we 
were  happy,  and  what  is  more,  were  at  rest  while  at 
our  work. 

He  who  keeps  himself  strained  up  to  his  highest 
running  speed  all  the  time  does  not  make  the  best 
progress  on  a  long  journey.  There  is  much  differ- 
ence between  a  spurt  and  a  four-mile  course.  And 
when  you  come  to  make  a  long  journey  '*  Dobbin  " 
and  his  "jog-trot  "  will  beat  *'  Eclipse,"  or  any  other 
racer  at  his  best.  Do  not  mistake  morbid  nervous- 
ness for  zeal. 

2.  Be  systematic.  It  is  one  condition  of  success. 
It  is  as  needful  in  the  Sunday-school  as  in  the 
counting-room  or  the  machine  shop.  If  you  get  at 
loose  ends  you  will  soon  ravel  out.  If  the  screws 
and  bolts  of  your  engine  are  loose,  you  will  soon 
rattle  it  to  pieces.  And  the  faster  you  go  the  soon- 
er it  is  done.  But  don't  turn  the  screws  too  tight, 
you  may  break  something.  Possibly  a  martinet  in 
the  small  matters  of  army-drill  may  be  of  some  use  , 
but  martinets  have  no  business  running  Sunday- 
schools.  Genuine  system  is  an  easy-going  thing. 
Like  well-made  and  well-oiled  machinery,  it  runs  with 
little  noise.  If  what  you  call  system  makes  a  noise, 
or  heats  the  axles,  it  is  something  else.  True  sys- 
tem prevents  and  reduces  friction  ;  the  counterfeit 
develops  it. 

We  have  seen  brakcmen  who  knew  exactly  how 


Hunting  Plants ,  259 

to  stop  a  train.  They  applied  the  brake  in  such  a 
weiy  as  to  bring  down  the  speed  regularly  and  easi- 
ly, so  that  the  train  seemed  to  glide  into  a  full  stop. 
The  whole  thing  is  so  easily  done  that  it  wouldn't 
wake  a  baby,  or  give  an  old  man's  rheumatism  an 
extra  twinge.  Others  "  put  down  the  brake  "  with 
such  a  wrench  that  the  whole  train  groans,  and  quiv- 
ers, and  jumps,  and  bumps,  and  thumps,  till  sleep- 
ing babies  are  rolled  off  the  seats  upon  the  floor, 
mothers  are  frightened,  old  gentlemen  hurt  all  over, 
and  every  body  is  disturbed. 

Happy  is  he  whose  system  makes  things  go  easily 
instead  of  roughly.  We  have  known  superintend- 
ents so  intent  on  what  they  called  system  as  to 
destroy,  by  their  ugly  frowns,  and  quick,  sharp  ways, 
and  snappy  words,  and  incessant  bell-jingling,  the 
pleasure  and  profit  of  an  entire  Sunday  morning. 
Better  not  try  to  be  systematic  than  to  worry  your- 
self sick,  and  to  make  every  body  else  miserable 
about  it. 

True  system  avoids  friction,  and  jolts,  and  jars, 
and  hurts. 

3.  Have  patience  as  well  as  perseverance.  These 
graces  are  sometimes  confounded  with  each  other. 
But  they  are  very  different,  though  sometimes  beau- 
tifully blended.  There  are  more  persevering  than 
patient  people.  We  know  people  who  will  stick  to 
a  thing  through  thick  and  thin,  who  will  go  through 
what  they  undertake  if  it  kills  them  ;  but  they  fret. 


26o  Our  Children. 

and  growl,  and  whine,  and  complain,  and  criticise, 
and  scold  from  beginning  to  end.  They  have 
perseverance  such  as  it  is.  They  drag  the  train 
through,  but  with  hot  axles  and  damaged  machin- 
ery. Withal  there  is  much  smell  of  burning  car 
grease,  and  great  danger  of  general  conflagration. 

Happy  is  he  who  perseveres  in  a  good  work 
patiently ! 

With  this  much  concerning  patience  we  say,  stick 
to  your  work.  Perseverance  will  conquer — always 
has  conquered.  And  don't  get  out  of  heart  if  you 
fail  at  first.  Most  people  have  failed  twice  where 
they  have  succeeded  once.  Those  who  ever  do  any 
thing  worthy  fail  first.  In  fact  we  can't  learn  to  do 
some  things  till  we  fail.  You  are  not  the  first  man 
who  has  failed  ;  you  will  not  be  the  last.  Remem- 
ber your  old  copy — "Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day." 
And  that  is  not  all ;  Rome  never  got  itself  built 
aright  till  it  was  burned  down  several  times.  Fail 
and  learn  why.  The  lesson  will  redeem  the  failure. 
This  leads  to  success.  Dear  brother,  hundreds  of 
schools  fail  and  die  because  their  superintendents 
lose  heart  and  quit.     Do  you  stick  to  your  work. 

But,  we  say  again,  be  patient.  Take  things  easy, 
although  you  must  work  very  hard.  You  can  work 
hard  and  be  quiet ;  you  can  persevere  and  be  pa- 
tient. The  fact  is,  you  must  be  patient.  There  is 
no  getting  on  without  it.  You  will  have  need  of 
patience.     You  will  not  find  your  teachers  always  in 


Hunting  Plans.  261 

their  place,  or  always  prepared  to  teach.  Some- 
times they  will  be  late,  sometimes  they  will  be  ab- 
sent. All  this  is  bad,  but  fretting  and  scolding 
wont  make  it  better — rather,  worse.  And  some 
people — if  you  are  of  any  account — will  find  fault 
with  you.  What  of  that?  Are  you  the  first  good 
man  ever  criticised,  complained  of,  misrepresented  ? 
There  have  been  always  people  who  complain,  and 
criticise,  and  misrepresent.  They  called  John  the 
Baptist  a  madman,  and  said  he  *'  had  a  devil; "  the 
same  people  called  Jesus  a  "glutton"  and  "a  wine- 
bibber." 

Besides,  you  ought  to  remember  how  you  used  to 

do  when  Brother was  superintendent  and  you 

were  a  teacher.  You  will  remember  that  you  gave 
him  some  hard  raps.  May  be  he  deserved  criticism 
— but  not  the  raps.  Perhaps  you  also  deserve  crit- 
icism, and  have  received  the  *'  raps  "  for  good  meas- 
ure, according  to  the  example  you  set.  When  a 
man  finds  fault  with  you,  instead  of  getting  mad 
and  proving  his  accusation  by  the  bad  temper  with 
which  you  receive  it,  look  into  the  matter.  Per- 
haps he  is  right.  May  be  you  can  amend.  If  so, 
what  a  duty — what  a  privilege  ! 

This  brings  us  to  name  another  grace  —  a  ripe 
fruit  of  the  Spirit— meehtess.  Perseverance  is  good, 
patience  is  better,  meekness  is  best.  Can  we  not 
say  when  the  wise  and  the  good,  our  best  and  truest 
friends,  reprove  us :    "  Let  the  righteous  smite  me ; 


262  Our  Children. 

it  shall  be  a  kindness :  and  let  him  reprove  me ;  It 
shall  be  an  excellent  oil,  which  shall  not  break  my 
head :  for  yet  my  prayer  also  shall  be  in  their  ca- 
lamities." 

4.  Study  the  lesson.  The  lesson  is  the  central 
idea.  Drive  a  post  down  here.  We  do  not  forget 
in  saying  this  that  the  grand  end  is  the  salvation  of 
the  children.  That  is  always  understood,  but  the 
lesson  is  the  central  idea  because  it  is  about  God 
and  Christ,  and  the  true  knowledge  of  God  is  the 
grand  means  of  salvation.  Once  more  we  say,  if 
you  do  not  teach  you  fail.  Exhortations,  songs,  ad- 
dresses, anecdotes,  and  all  manner  of  light  drill,  can- 
not substitute  the  lesson.  You  must  be  an  example 
of  studiousness  to  the  teacher.  Although  you  may 
never  hear  a  class,  every  teacher  and  scholar  should 
know  that  you  make  it  a  matter  of  conscience  to 
prepare  every  lesson.  Want  of  study — hard,  earnest 
study — is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  among  teachers 
and  scholars.  If  you,  as  superintendent,  study  the 
lesson  as  you  ought,  there  may  be — there  will  be — 
contagion  in  your  example. 

5.  Be  of  good  cheer.  Despondent,  morose  you 
must  not  be.  For  pity's  sake,  don't  drive  the  light 
out  of  young  eyes  by  darkness  in  your  own.  It  is  a 
high  Christian  duty  to  be  cheerful.  Christian  cheer- 
fulness is  a  grace,  and  it  is  also  a  means  of  grace. 
But  mind  you,  cheerfulness  and  levity  are  very  dif- 
ferent  things.     You  have  no  business  with   levity. 


Hunting  Plans.  263 

If  you  have  any  conscience  and  know  how  responsi- 
ble your  office  is,  trifling  you  cannot  be.  Your 
best  spiritual  power  will  evaporate  if  you  fall  into 
habitual  levity.  Cultivate  Christian  cheerfulness. 
If  you  have  chronic  melancholy,  go  on  a  marooning 
expedition,  or  a  buffalo  hunt,  or  a  whaling  voyage, 
or  something,  but  don't  throw  a  chill  over  a  whole 
Sunday-school  by  the  clouds  that  darken  your  face. 

6.  Attempt  and  expect  great  tilings.  "  According 
to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you."  So  spake  the  Master. 
If  you  expect  to  fail,  you  will  not  be  disappointed. 
If  you  expect  to  fail,  get  out  of  the  way  at  once. 
It  will  save  time,  and  perhaps  ''  feelings."  There 
are  few  sublimer  words  than  Carey's,  when  he  was 
pleading  for  foreign  missions  before  a  prejudiced 
.audience  in  Northampton,  England.  He  had  two 
points  in  his  sermon,  thus  :  ''  I.  Attempt  great  things 
for  God.     2.  Expect  great  things  fro  n  God." 

7.  Ask  God  to  help  you.  This  you  will  do  if  you 
attempt  great  things  for  God.  Pray  for  guidance 
and  support.  Above  all,  pray  that  you  may  have 
in  your  own  heart,  as  an  abiding  presence,  "  the 
mind  that  was  in  Christ."  Then  you  also  will  be 
*'  moved  with  compassion  on  souls."  If  your  heart 
is  full  of  this  feeling  you  will  learn  what  it  is  neces- 
sary for  you  to  know. 

Finally,  dear  brother,  do  your  work  earnestly, 
systematically,  perseveringly,  patiently,  meekly,  stu- 
diously,   cheerfully,    prayerfully.      ^'Attempt    great 


264  Our  Children. 

things  for  God ;  "  "  expect  great  things  from  God  ;  " 
leave  results  with  God.  The  exhortation  of  St.  Paul 
is  always  appropriate  for  workers  in  God's  field : 
*'  And  let  us  not  be  weary  in  well-doing ;  for  in  due 
season  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint  not."  And  the  ex- 
hortation of  St.  James  is  always  a  good  reproof  of 
our  unbeHef :  **  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unto 
the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Behold,  the  husbandman 
waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath 
long  patience  for  it,  until  he  receive  the  early  and 
latter  rain.  Be  ye  also  patient ;  stablish  your  hearts : 
for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh." 


The  Power  of  the  Right  Spirit.  265 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  POWER  OF  THE   RIGHT  SPIRIT. 

THERE  is  no  end  to  our  discussions,  in  all  sorts 
of  Church  papers  and  Church  conferences,  of 
method.  Is  there  any  evil  in  the  Church,  some- 
body answers.  Let  us  tighten  this  screw,  or  lengthen 
this  band,  or  shorten  this  shaft,  or  move  this  wheel. 
Is  there  some  trouble  in  the  Sunday-school,  some- 
body suggests  tinkering  with  its  machinery.  We 
are  too  apt  to  consider  these  subjects  in  the  spirit 
of  the  machinest,  who,  detecting  an  irregularity  of 
motion,  is  sure  that  the  trouble  is  in  the  machinery 
itself,  and  that  it  can  be  remedied  by  overhauling 
and  readjusting  its  parts.  The  machinist  is  right. 
The  machinery  cannot  go  wrong  when  its  parts  are 
rightly  adjusted  and  the  requisite  power  is  applied. 
But  nations,  communities,  families.  Churches,  Sun- 
day-schools are  not  mere  machines,  and  cannot  be 
forced  into  proper  action  by  mechanical  appliances. 
There  has  been  no  end  of  experiments,  great  and 
small,  in  this  matter.  Government  and  management 
of  men  by  mere  force  of  machinery  may  seem  to  do 
well  enough  for  a  time,  but  it  is  all  wrong  and  contrary 
to  nature.  It  breaks  down — it  is  obliged  to  do  so. 
We  can  estimate  the  power  of  an  engine,  and  tell 


266  Our  Children. 

exactly  what  it  can  do.  But  we  cannot  do  this  in 
our  estimate  of  the  influences  that  determine  the 
conduct  and  mold  the  character  of  men.  "  There  is 
a  spirit  in  man,"  and  the  powers  that  affect  him  are 
chiefly  spiritual.  He  who  would  do  good  to  men, 
and  does  not  know  this,  has  every  thing  to  learn. 

For  our  part,  we  believe  in  system,  order,  method, 
to  the  full  extent  of  our  capacity  to  understand 
their  value.  We  know  that  learning,  genius,  zeal, 
often  waste  themselves  in  fruitless,  self-destructive 
exertions,  for  the  lack  of  method.  We  have  no 
confidence  in  blind  force.  Crooked  and  gnarled 
oaks  cannot  be  split  in  straight  lines,  or  by  the  blunt 
end  of  the  wedge  with  ever  so  great  an  outlay  of 
power.  Power  working  in  the  wrong  direction  is  at 
a  ruinous  disadvantage,  and  the  greater  the  power, 
in  such  a  case,  the  greater  the  danger,  damage,  and 
disaster.  Right  adjustments  seem  to  multiply  power 
indefinitely,  for  while  they  may  not  increase  it  ab- 
solutely, they  utilize  it  and  show  us  the  results — and 
we  judge  power  by  its  results.  But  when  we  are 
considering  the  influences  that  move  men,  let  us 
never  forget  what  it  is  easy  to  forget,  what  we  can- 
not overvalue  or  adequately  aescribe,  t/ie  poiver  of 
the  right  spirit. 

A  young  girl  is  married  and  moves  into  her  new 
home.  She  is  inexperienced,  and  will  often  burn 
her  fingers,  spoil  the  breakfast,  and  fret  her  soul  be- 
fore she  attains  to  her  mother's  perfection  in  house- 


The  Power  of  the  Right  Spirit,  267 

keeping.  The  good  mother  may  tell  her  all  and 
show  her  all,  and  furnish  a  whole  library  of  books 
on  cooking  and  housekeeping ;  but  if  the  daughter 
have  not  the  true  housewife  spirit,  she  will  fail  in 
spite  of  printed  directions  and  maternal  counsels. 
But  if  she  have  the  true  housewife  spirit  she  will 
learn  from  all  teachers,  or  learn  without  them. 

If  a  boy  have  no  inventive  genius  and  no  love  for 
the  mechanic  arts,  the  life-long  study  of  models  and 
authorities  would  never  make  him  an  inventor.  But 
if  he  have  the  right  mechanical  spirit  within  him — 
if  he  have  true  inventive  genius,  with  teachers  or 
without  them,  he  will  learn.  Deprive  him  of  ordi- 
nary facilities,  he  will  make  them  for  himself,  or  in- 
vent better  ones.  Shut  him  up  to  his  own  resources, 
and  he  will  study  dynamics  from  nature,  and  learn 
from  his  failures  the  secret  of  success. 

Books  might  be  written  filled  with  illustrations 
of  this  principle.  Artists,  mechanics,  scientific  dis- 
coverers, indeed,  all  the  great  workers,  show  that 
they  won  success  for  their  work  by  the  power  of 
the  right  spirit  that  was  in  them. 

Far  more  important  than  the  question  of  method, 
is  that  of  the  right  spirit.  For  the  right  spirit  will 
surely  find  for  itself  the  best  methods  for  the  exer- 
tion of  its  power.  Let  our  law-makers  go  on  pei- 
fecting,  as  best  they  can,  the  machinery  of  the 
Church,  but,  above  all,  let  them  seek  for  the  right 
spirit  in  the  work  of  the  Church.     Let  our  Sunday- 


268  Our  Children. 

school  people  find  out  and  tell  to  others  the  best 
methods ;  but,  above  all,  let  them  work  in  the  right 
spirit.  We  shall  find,  at  last,  that  the  right  method 
is  a  natural  development  and  expression  of  the  right 
spirit. 

We  know  a  man  who  for  several  years  accom- 
plished a  great  deal  of  good  as  the  superintendent  of 
two  Sunday-schools.  One  of  them  was  part  of  a  rich 
and  strong  Church,  the  other  was  called  a  "  Mis- 
sion-school." Tried  by  the  final  test,  both  schools 
succeeded,  because  in  both  many  children  were 
happily  converted  to  God.  But  our  friend  was  ill 
at  ease  because  many  of  the  children  remained  un- 
converted. This  was  well,  and  this  anxious  interest 
in  the  salvation  of  the  children  was  one  secret  of  his 
power.  A  superintendent  who  could  be  satisfied 
while  even  one  of  his  children  is  an  unpardoned, 
unsaved  sinner,  is  unworthy  his  position. 

On  one  occasion  our  friend  wrote  us  a  personal 
letter,  not  intended  for  publication,  but,  as  we  give 
no  name,  he  will  pardon  us,  should  this  ever  meet 
his  eye,  for  trying  to  make  his  example  useful  to 
others. 

He  gave  some  account  of  his  work  in  the  two 
schools  and  wound  up  thus : — 

'■'■  I  shall  make  a  special  effort  to  secure  the  salva- 
tion of  these  children.  I  believe  that  God  will 
grant  me  my  desire.  I  pray  for  them,  and  I  have 
faith.     I   know  he  is  a  prayer-answering   God.     I 


The  Pozvcr  of  the  Right  Spirit.  269 

thank  him  for  a  humble  place  in  which  I  can  work. 
Pray  for  me,  my  dear  brother.  I  have  the  weight 
and  burden  of  these  children  upon  my  inmost  soul.'* 

And  this  m.an  worked  just  as  he  wrote.  Now  to 
this  brother,  and  through  him  to  others,  we  wish  to 
say  several  things. 

First  of  all,  he  ought  to  be  very  thankful.  To 
have  an  earnest  purpose  to  do  good  and  glorify 
God  is  a  great  blessing.  Our  friend  is  neither  rich, 
nor  learned,  nor  eloquent.  But  God  has  given  him 
''a  place  in  which  he  can  work,"  a  heart  for  his 
work,  and  grace  to  do  his  work.  During  several 
years  past  he  has  been  gaining  in  power  and  skill. 
It  was  very  hard  and  awkward  at  first.  We  were 
with  him  at  the  beginning,  and  feared  much  that  his 
repeated  failures  would  discourage  him  altogether. 
But  he  learned  wisdom,  and  grew  in  strength  and 
grace  while  trying  to  do  what  lay  before  him.  Car- 
lyle  says  truly  in  one  place,  and  the  words  have 
been  a  blessing  to  the  writer  of  this  little  volume, 
''  Do  the  duty  that  is  nearest  thee ;  the  next  will 
already  have  become  plainer." 

The  children  converted  in  these  two  schools  dur- 
ing our  friend's  superintendency  were  counted  by 
the  score.  One  good,  strong  Church  has  grown  out 
of  the  mission-school. 

In  the  short  extract  we  have  given  from  his  letter 
it  is  all  explained.  It  is  well  to  inquire  diligently 
concerning  method,  and  means,  and  plans,  and  rem- 


270  Our  Children. 

edies.  It  is  always  best  to  work  in  the  best  way. 
But  if  we  feel  as  our  brother  did  when  writing  his 
letter  to  us,  and  while  conducting  his  two  Sunday- 
schools,  we  will  find  out  the  best  methods  and  plans. 
If  we  do  not  feel  so,  all  the  plans  and  methods  in 
the  world  cannot  help  us.  For  zeal,  patience,  en- 
ergy, good  sense,  faith,  love,  and  prayer,  there  are 
no  substitutes.  Lacking  these,  we  must  fail.  Some 
points  in  our  friend's  letter  we  must  recall  for  a 
moment. 

"  /  thank  Him  for  a  /nimble  place  in  zvhich  to 
worky  We  rejoice  in  the  spirit  of  a  man  who 
thanks  God  "  for  a  place  in  which  to  work,"  although 
it  may  be  but  a  ''humble  place."  This  is  the 
Christ-spirit,  "  I  delight  to  do  thy  will,  O  my  God." 
A  reluctant  service  discredits  our  profession  and 
destroys  our  usefulness.  Whoever  loves  God  aright 
wiir  be  glad  to  labor  in  his  cause,  finding  the  dig- 
nity and  importance  of  the  work  in  the  source  of 
command,  rather  than  in  the  nature  of  the  work  it- 
self. So  do  the  good  angels  rejoice  to  do  the  work 
God  gives  them  to  do.  We  see  one  bringing  a  mes- 
sage to  the  princely  Abraham  under  the  oaks  at 
Mamre,  and  another,  with  as  swift  wing  and  ready 
grace,  discovering  to  outcast  Hagar  a  fountain  of 
water.  The  angels  came  singing  over  Bethlehem, 
*'  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace, 
good-will  to  men,"  to  tell  the  world  that  the  Re- 
deemer-king was  born  in  Bethlehem.    Again  we  see 


The  Power  of  the  Right  Spirit.  271 

them  keeping  watch  with  the  stars  over  dying  Laz- 
arus, and  giving  escort  to  his  ransomed  spirit  as  he 
ascended  to  Abraham's  bosom. 

Fretting  and  whining  over  our  work  for  God  is 
a  sin.  Gratitude  to  Him  "  who  hath  redeemed  us 
and  bought  us  with  his  own  blood,"  should  make  us 
rejoice  in  his  work.  It  is  pitiable  and  shameful  to 
hear  some  men  talk  about  the  "  sacrifices  " — as  they 
say — of  the  Christian  ministry  ;  to  see  a  young  man 
"  called  of  God  to  preach  "  the  blessed  Gospel,  hes- 
itating and  shrinking  and  mourning  over  the  ''  sacri- 
fice "  he  makes  in  '*  giving  up  the  law,"  or  "  medi- 
cine," or  '^  merchandise  " — this  is  a  shame  to  rouse 
just  indignation.  If  the  great  God  condescends  to 
allow  any  poor,  pardoned  sinner  to  invite  his  fel- 
low-sinner to  Christ,  he  should  shout  for  joy — he 
should  make  his  whole  life  an  anthem  of  rapturous 
gratitude. 

David  Livingstone,  one  of  the  truest  heroes,  most 
devoted  Christians,  and  most  unselfish  lovers  of  his 
race,  in  writing  of  the  dangers  and  hardships  .of  his 
missionary  travels  in  Africa  has  wisely  and  beauti- 
fully written  in  his  journal,  and  only  a  year  or  two 
before  he  died :  "  I  do  not  mention  these  privations 
as  if  I  consider  them  to  be  ^sacrifices ;'  for  I  think 
that  the  word  ought  never  to  be  applied  to  any 
thing  we  can  do  for  Him  who  came  down  from 
heaven  and  died  for  us." 

Our  brother  furthermore  understood  very  clearly 


2/2  Our  Children. 

that  though  machinery  may  be  perfect,  it  is  nothing 
without  power.  Very  many  do  not  understand  this. 
Therefore,  while  doing  his  best  to  secure  the  most 
thorough  organization  of  his  school,  to  ascertain  and 
employ  the  best  methods  of  instructing  and  govern- 
ing the  children,  he  made  the  whole  great  work 
committed  to  him  a  matter  of  special,  earnest,  and 
continued  prayer.  It  does  not  occur  to  a  man  who 
is  not  deeply  in  earnest  to  pour  out  his  soul  in  ask- 
ing for  divine  aid — he  does  not  feel  the  need  of  it. 
It  is  only  when  the  heart  is  "  moved  "  with  some- 
thing like  that  "  compassion  "  that  Jesus  felt  for  the 
famishing  multitude  that  the  utter  insufficiency  of 
all  human  strength  is  painfully  felt.  Then  the  good 
man  flies  to  the  Strong  for  strength. 

We  commend  to  all  who  labor  for  the  conversion 
of  children  or  adults — to  pastors,  superintendents 
teachers,  and  parents — these  words  of  our  friend,  who 
felt  that  a  great  work  was  to  be  done,  that  it  must 
be  done,  that  he  was  very  weak,  and  that  God  was 
almighty  and  willing  to  help  him  : — 

"  I  believe  that  God  will  grant  me  my  desire.  I 
pray  for  them  ;  I  have  faith.  I  know  that  he  is  a 
prayer-answering  God.  I  have  the  weight  and  bur- 
den of  these  children  upon  my  inmost  soul." 

If  we  "  have  the  weight  and  burden  of  the  chil- 
dren upon  our  inmost  30ul,"  and  if  we  "have  faith" 
also,  we  will  solve  all  the  difficulties  of  our  work. 
We  will  accept  difficulties  and  discouragements  as 


TJie  Power  of  tJu  Right  Spirit.  273 

part  of  our  discipline,  ind  by  divine  grace  will  over- 
come them  all.  Zeal,  and  faith,  and  love,  will  teach 
us  how  to  do  all  that  the  Master  requires  of  us. 

We  cannot  better  conclude  this  chapter  than  by- 
giving  an  extract  from  an  article  published  in  the 
"Sunday-school  Magazine"  in  January,  1873,  ^^'^- 
titled  "  A  True  History."  The  writer,  whom  we 
know  to  be  reliable,  tells  how  one  superintendent 
succeeded  in  doing  a  good  and  great  work  in  a  city 
in  Alabama.     The  writer  says : — 

"  About  five  years  since  the  school  was  put  under 
the  superintendence  of  an  untried  man,  since  which 
time  a  new  era  in  its  history  has  commenced,  with 
much  more  satisfactory  results.  Now,  our  young 
people  remain  with  us,  are  punctual  in  their  attend- 
ance, and  most  warmly  attached  to  the  school  — 
promising  to  develop  into  just  such  a  generation  of 
Methodists  and  Sunday-school  workers  as  the  times 
and  the  people  require.  This  change  I,  in  common 
with  the  other  teachers,  attribute  to  the  influence 
of  the  superintendent.  Therefore,  as  showing  the 
best  means  for  retaining  our  young  people,  I  would 
state  what  his  course  has  been. 

"  When  placed  in  charge  he  was  comparatively 

without  experience,  but  was  known  as  an  earnest, 

prudent  worker.     In  addition  to  the  usual  routine 

pointed  out  by  the  best  publications  to  be  had,  two 

general  ideas  appeared   to    have   possession  of   his 

mind,  and  to  govern  his  administration: — 
18 


274  Our  Children. 

*'  I.  That  the  Sunday-school  had  an  evangelical, re- 
ligious character  to  be  developed  and  improved. 

"  2.  That  the  pupils  were  to  be  influenced  by  the 
evangelical  religious  character  and  spirit  of  the 
teachers. 

*'  This  was  placing  the  institution  on  a  new  basis, 
causing  it  to  be  regarded  rather  as  a  children's 
Church  than  a  school— the  object  being  the  conver- 
sion of  the  children  under  Gospel  teaching,  enforced 
by  loving  hearts  ;  which  result  was  prayed  for  and 
expected,  at  any  and  all  times,  without  waiting  for 
the  influence  of  revival  seasons,  but  hailing  such  op- 
portunities with  gladness,  and  using  them  to  advan- 
tage when  they  came. 

"  To  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  pupils  he 
visited  them  extensively ;  so  much  so  that  few,  if 
any,  of  the  two  or  three  hundred  members  of  the 
school  had  failed  to  see  him  at  their  homes  more 
than  once  during  the  year;  and  in  cases  of  sickness, 
or  other  affliction,  he  was  with  them  often  as  a  sym- 
pathizing friend.  Thus  hearts  were  warmed  and 
won. 

"  Having  thus  shown  himself  to  be  the  most  earn- 
est worker  among  them  all,  the  teachers  were  pre- 
pared to  submit  to  such  changes  as  he  suggested 
among  the  classes  when  reorganizing.  Worth,  hith- 
erto obscured,  was  brought  out  and  employed,  earn- 
est industry  in  study  was  rewarded,  and  those  of 
artificial  mold  led  to  value  real  character. 


TJie  Power  of  the  Right  Spirit.  275 

"  Each  Sabbath  found  him  well  prepared  to  ap- 
ply with  tact  and  earnestness  the  main  points  in  the 
lesson  to  both  teachers  and  pupils.  His  heart  was 
in  his  words,  and  his  short,  pithy  sermons  impressed 
us  all 

''  Knowing,  as  he  did,  that  most  children  who  are 
instructed  sigh — if  they  do  not  cry  out — for  a  knowl- 
edge of  '■  what  they  must  do  to  be  saved  '  long  before 
such  feelings  are  generally  expected,  he  was  always 
on  the  watch  for  symptoms  of  the  operation  of 
awakening  grace,  and  prompt  to  treat  them  as  the 
case  required.  Such  a  spirit  and  example  could  not 
fail  to  stimulate  his  teachers  to  more  earnest  work. 
They,  too,  visited,  exhorted,  prayed,  and  watched  : 
and  their  appeals  to  the  members  of  their  respective 
classes  to  give  their  hearts  to  Christ  were  not  in 
vain.  Many  have  done  this.  No  wonder,  then, 
that  they  love  the  Sabbath-school. 

"  Here,  then,  is  the  cure  for  the  great  evil  we  have 
suffered  by  our  young  people  leaving  us.  I  repeat 
with  confidence :  the  Sunday-school,  worked  as  an 
evangelical,  religious  institution,  and  the  Church 
working  earnestly  in  it,  under  a  good  superintend- 
ent, will  keep  our  young  people  with  us.  In  day- 
schools  and  colleges,  in  business  and  in  society,  the 
young  find  those  who  want  them — seeking  them 
where  they  may  be  found.  And  shall  the  Church 
show  less  zeal  or  wisdom  in  this  respect  ?  ,  .  . 

*'  In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  our  prayer-meet- 


2/6  Our  Children. 

ings,  class-meetings,  Sabbath  congregations,  and 
sacramental  tables  are  now  filled  up  with  a  due  pro- 
portion of  the  youth  taught  in  our  Sabbath-schools, 
many  of  whom  have  now  taken  positions  in  business 
and  society ;  yet  they  attend,  and,  from  present  in- 
dications, will  continue  to  do  so.  I  again  repeat, 
here  is  the  cure  for  the  evil  we  suffer  by  our  young 
people  leaving  us :  Work  by  the  Church  in  the  Sun- 
day-school,  tinder  the  directioji  and  leadership  of  a 
right-minded  superintendent . 

"  Is  this  too  much  to  ask? 

"  This  will  we  not  say  in  word  or  act.  If  *  the 
love  of  Christ  constrain  us,'  and  if,  for  his  sake,  we 
be  wiUing  to  toil  and  to  wait,  we  shall  realize  what 
his  word  assures  us  :  '  Our  labor  shall  not  be  in  vain 
in  the  Lord.' " 

Who  of  us  all  can  measure  the  power  of  devotion, 
of  true  enthusiasm  for  God's  work  by  those  who 
love  him  ?  Jean  Ingelow  says  as  beautifully  as 
truly,  "  The  man  to  follow  in  any  cause,  let  it  be 
what  it  will,  is  he  who  loves  it  well  enough  to  fling 
into  it  every  thing  he  has  in  this  world,  and  then 
thinks  that  is  not  enough,  and  so  flings  himself  in 
after  it.  This  last  item  often  weighs  down  the 
scales  held  in  heaven,  and  he  gets  what  he  gave 
himself  for." 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  277 


CHAPTER   VII. 

A   LIGHT  IN  A  DARK   PLACE. 

WE  have  a  friend  who  is  young,  educated,  and 
a  Methodist.  He  is  a  cotton-planter,  whose 
plantation  is  in  an  out-of-the-way  place.  He  lives 
on  his  plantation,  and  has  little  congenial  society. 
Most  of  his  neighbors  are  poor  and  ignorant.  The 
neighborhood  church — Hopewell,  they  call  it — is 
weak.  The  house  is  uncomfortable,  and  the  mem- 
bership small.  They  lack,  not  only  money  and 
numbers,  but  organization  and  enterprise.  Hope- 
well is  really  in  a  sad  condition,  and  it  is  much  to 
be  feared  that  the  old  logs  are  not  the  only  things 
that  are  falling  into  decay.  One  of  the  worst  feat- 
ures of  the  case  is  that  the  members  have  no  confi- 
dence in  themselves.  They  are,  as  the  soldiers  used 
to  say,  "  demoralized."  It  is  a  bad  state  to  be  in — 
for  a  man,  a  woman,  a  child,  a  family,  an  army,  a 
community,  a  Church,  or  a  nation.  It  is  the  paral- 
ysis of  faith  and  the  death  of  energy. 

Hopewell  has  had  no  proper  head  since  the  good 
man  died  who  gave  the  land  it  is  built  on,  and  who 
sleeps  under  the  cedars  in  the  little  grave-yard  close 
by.  The  neighbors  often  think  of  him  and  talk 
over  his  virtues,  and  wish  that  he  were  with  them 


2/8  Our  Children. 

again.  They  would  rejoice  to  see  him  in  his  place 
once  more.  Dear  old  Brother  Greatheart,  every 
body  loved,  trusted,  and  followed  him.  He  was 
every  thing  while  he  lived — the  head,  the  tongue, 
the  hand,  the  foot,  the  purse  of  Hopewell.  No 
wonder  they  miss  him.  His  advice  was  their  law, 
and  his  opinion  was  their  gauge  of  the  new  preach- 
er's abilities.  If  he  frowned  during  the  delivery  of 
the  first  sermon,  or  shrugged  his  shoulders  when 
they  asked  him  what  he  thought,  the  new  preacher's 
fate  was  sealed — 'Mie  wont  do."  If  he  smiled  with 
satisfaction,  or  wept  under  the  exhortation,  or 
praised  him  when  the  benediction  was  pronounced, 
he  was  accepted  of  all  men.  Candor  compels  us  to 
admit  that  Brother  Greatheart  was  apt  to  like  best 
the  preacher  he  had  asked  for  when  the  presiding 
elder  was  on  his  last  round.  But  in  this,  perhaps, 
he  has  many  imitators,  who  mean  well  enough,  but 
whose  pique  at  disappointment  sometimes  warps 
their  judgment  of  the  new  preacher's  ability. 

While  Brother  Greatheart  lived  he  did  whatever 
was  done  at  Hopewell.  He  was  the  greatest  man 
in  their  neighborhood ;  and  while  some  called  him 
''  Brother,"  others  ''  Father,"  or  ''  Uncle,"  or  ''  Grand- 
father" Greatheart,  the  truth  is,  whether  any  of 
them  knew  it  or  not,  he  was,  while  yet  among  them, 
their  real  king.  And  no  wonder,  for  they  needed  a 
king,  and  Jeremiah  Greatheart  was  their  ablest  and 
best. 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  279 

The  commander  of  men,"  says  Thomas  Carlyle, 
■  is  called  Rex,  Regulator,  Roi ;  our  own  word  is 
still  better — King,  Konning,  which  means,  Can-ning, 
able  man."  According  to  Mr.  Carlyle,  the  true  king 
then,  is  one  who  Can.  Brother  Greatheart  was,  to 
the  Hopewell  Church  and  neighborhood,  such  a 
man.  Another  English  writer,  Mr.  Freeman,  de- 
rives our  word  king  after  another  fashion.  Thus: 
"  Cyning,  by  contraction  King,  is  evidently  closely 
connected  with  the  word  Cyn  or  Kin.  The  con- 
nection is  not  without  an  important  meaning.  The 
king  is  the  representative  of  the  race,  the  embodi- 
ment of  its  national  being,  the  child  of  his  people 
and  not  their  father."  This  also  made  Brother 
Greatheart  king — he  was  kin  to  nearly  every  body 
round  about  Hopewell,  albeit  rather  in  the  relation 
of  father  than  child.  Another  eminent  scholar,  Sir 
F.  Palgrave,  derives  King  from  *'Cen,"  a  Celtic  word 
signifying  the  head.  By  this  token  also  Brother 
Greatheart  was  king.  He  was  their  ablest  man, 
their  head-man,  and  kinsman  to  them  all. 

Maybe  some  of  our  readers  never  heard  of  this 
''  king  of  men,"  Brother  Greatheart.  They  even 
know  more  of  Agamemnon.  This  proves  that  they 
have  never  been  to  Hopewell. 

We  have  sometimes  thought  that  possibly  Brother 
Greatheart  did  too  much — rather  that  the  rest  of 
them  did  too  little.  They  never  did  enough  to  find 
out  that  they  could  do  any  thing.     Their  opinion 


28o  Our  Children. 

was  that  Brother  Greatheart  was  the  best  trustee, 
class  leader,  steward,  and  manager-general  of  a 
Church  in  the  circuit,  or  in  the  conference. 

When  he  died  they  were  lost,  and  men  and  women 
asked  each  other  at  his  grave,  "What  will  become 
of  Hopewell  now?"  They  had  depended  on  him  so 
long  that  they  depended  on  him  altogether.  Emer- 
son's brief  and  specific  formula  for  the  cure  of  ego- 
tism they  would  have  rejected  with  disdain  if  it  had 
been  applied  to  Brother  Greatheart,  "  The  world 
needs  every  man;  but  not  much."  And  we  have 
seen  some  persons  who  aspired  to  be  kings  on  a  wid- 
er scale,  who  seemed  to  us  not  to  understand  this. 

At  all  events  Brother  Greatheart  is  dead,  and  the 
dear  people  are  like  a  little  flock  of  sheep  that  have 
lost  their  leader.  What  is  to  become  of  the  little 
Church  we  cannot  tell.  The  old  house  will  fall 
down  for  one  thing,  if  they  will  only  let  it  alone  an- 
other winter  or  two.  It  is  said  that  the  presiding 
elder  is  advising  about  "  leaving  it  off  the  plan  of 
the  circuit"  next  year.  The  outlook  is  certainly  far 
from  promising. 

Let  us  sum  up  the  general  status  as  things  are 
and  have  been  for  some  time.  The  old  Red-Oak 
Circuit,  which  once  boasted,  when  this  writer  was 
on  his  first  itinerant  rounds,  twenty-one  appoint- 
ments, has  been  divided  and  subdivided  till  we  must 
call,  for  propriety's  sake,  the  little  corner  in  which 
Hopewell  falls,  Pea  Patch  Circuit.     There  are  only 


A  LigJit  In  a  Dark  Place.  281 

five  Churches,  and  Hopewell,  being  the  weakest,  is 
the  ''  Saturday  appointment."  When  they  found 
out  that  they  were  to  have  "  Sunday  preaching"  no 
more,  they  knew  for  certain  that  Brother  Greatheart 
was  dead.  As  long  as  he  lived  he  managed  to 
stave  off  this  misfortune.  But  what  is  a  poor  circuit- 
rider  to  do  when  he  has  five  Churches,  and  each 
one  clamors  for  Sunday  preaching?  If  there  were 
only  five  Sundays  in  every  month  he  could  fix  it ! 
As  there  are  only  four  in  most  months,  Hopewell 
has  had  to  compromise,  that  is,  take  what  she  could 
get,  on  "Saturday  preaching"  once  a  month  and 
the  "  fifth  Sundays." 

It  is  said  by  some,  with  what  truth  we  know  not, 
that  since  the  circuit  was  reduced — one  of  the  argu- 
ments being  that  there  would  be  more  time  for  pas- 
toral visiting — there  is  actually  less  pastoral  visiting 
then  when  the  old  Red-Oak  numbered  twenty-one 
Churches.  ''  They  say  "  the  explanation  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  preacher  can  easily  reach  the  most 
distant  appointment.  Mount  Carmel,  by  leaving 
home  after  early  breakfast  Sunday  morning.  And 
''they  say"  furthermore,  that  first  one  cause  and 
then  another  often  carries  him  home  Sunday  night. 
Hopewell,  as  we  fear,  has  "Saturday  preaching"  in 
more  senses  than  one.  It  seems  that  the  preacher 
is  not  expected  to  do  his  best  at  Hopewell,  with  its 
small  Saturday  congregation. 

So   the    preacher  comes  and   goes,   and   the  old 


282  Our  Children. 

church  is  generally  closed  till  the  next  "  circuit 
preaching."  There  is  a  *' protracted  meeting"  just 
after  the  "  crop  is  laid  by"  and  before  "  fodder-pull- 
ing time."*  This  galvanizes  them  into  unwonted 
zeal,  and  they  "start"  a  prayer-meeting  that  holds 
on  for  about  one  month,  and  then  dwindles  down  to 
the  brother  w^ho  ''  sets  the  tune,"  and  "  who  is  fond 
of  it," — that  is,  of  setting  the  tune.  In  the  spring, 
when  other  things  are  budding,  the  preacher  "  starts  " 
a  Sunday-school.     It  rarely  lives  a  month. 

It  is  doubtful  if  they  start  any  thing  next  year. 
Sunday-school,  prayer-meeting,  and  all  will  prob- 
ably freeze  down  to  the  roots  this  winter.  The  fact 
is,  the  preacher  has  lost  heart  and  faith.  Which 
died  first,  his  zeal  or  his  faith,  he  himself,  perhaps, 
could  not  say.  As  to  the  Sunday-school,  the  people 
have  about  concluded  against  it ;  some  that  they 
can't  have  it,  others  that  they  don't  want  it.  Prac- 
tically, the  distinction  between  these  opinions  is  not 
worth  pointing  out. 

Hopewell,  as  the  case  stands  now,  is  virtually  with- 
out class-meeting,  prayer-meeting,  or  Sunday-school. 
How  much  preaching  do  they  have?  The  Annual 
Conference  and  its  changes  takes  one  appointment, 

*  This  is  a  more  important  statement  than  some  city  reader  may 
imagine.  A  complaint  was  once  made  against  the  Rev,  John  Strick- 
land, a  pioneer  preacher  in  Georgia,  whose  memory  is  still  precious, 
"  that  he  would  just  as  soon  start  a  meeting  right  in  the  middle  of 
fodder-pulling  time  as  any  other  time  ' " 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  283 

stormy  weather  another;  and  if  for  any  cause,  as 
Quarterly  or  District  Conference,  or  camp-meeting, 
tlie  preacher  should  ''call  in"  one  appointment, 
there  are  three  months  out  of  the  twelve  when 
Hopewell  has  no  preaching,  or  any  thing  else.  Its 
annual  average  is  not  above  nine  appointments  for 
regular  ''circuit  preaching."  To  these  add  fifth 
Sundays,  the  "  protracted  meeting,"  an  occasional 
sermon  by  some  good  local  preacher  who  compas- 
sionates the  "little  flock,"  and  we  have  the  sum 
total  of  public  services  for  Hopewell  Church  during 
the  whole  year. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  things  get  a  little 
loose  sometimes.  If  matters  cannot  be  improved 
Hopewell  had  better  be  "  absorbed "  before  it  is 
utterly  "  disintegrated." 

But  let  us  not  misjudge  them.  There  are  good, 
religious  people  at  Hopewell.  They  would  be  glad 
to  do  good  if  they  only  knew  how.  But  the  leading 
man  now,  Brother  Greatheart's  oldest  son,  is  not  a 
man  who  can.  At  least,  he  thinks  lie  cant,  and  that 
is  about  the  same  thing.  We  are  not  sure  that  he 
wants  to  lead,  but  as  he  is  Brother  Greatheart's  son, 
and  is  the  best  talker,  or  the  most  influential  man 
among  them,  the  people  wait  for  him  and  he  waits. 
So  they  have  been  going  on,  rather  not  going  on, 
for  several  years. 

There  are  very  few  books  among  the  neighbors 
and    but    one   "  Advocate "    is   taken,  and   Widow 


284  Our  Children. 

Greatheart  takes  that.  They  pay  a  small  part  of 
their  small  assessment  for  quarterage  ;  missionary 
money  and  the  ''  conference  collection  "  they  do 
not  expect  to  be  asked  for.  Some  of  the  younger 
ones  have  never  heard  these  collections  mentioned, 
and  do  not  know  the  difference  between  them. 
The  Hopewell  people  have  only  one  general  idea 
about  Church  finances — that  they  can't  do  much. 
But  there  is  one  other  notion  among  them,  vague 
and  nebulous;  whence  they  derived  it  nobody 
knows  ;  they  think  there  is  a  "  fund  "  somewhere 
to  keep  things  going.  Perhaps  they  "  evolved  "  the 
notion  from  their  knowledge  of  how  very  little  they 
do,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  Church  don't  stop  ! 
Somehow  the  "  preacher  comes "  every  year,  and 
they  conclude  that  there  must  be  a  '^  fund  "  some- 
where. Alas  !  this  dreamy  notion  of  a  ^'  big  fund  " 
somewhere  has  made  very  small  indeed  the  *'  fund  " 
in  many  a  poor  preacher's  pocket.  What  if  the 
preacher's  "  fund  "  of  devotion  to  the  cause  were  as 
small  as  his  money  "  fund  ?  " 

Of  course  Hopewell  don't  grow — it  can't.  It  has 
nothing  to  grow  on.  It  does  not  quite  hold  its 
own,  the  gain  from  the  protracted  meeting  not 
keeping  up  with  the  loss  by  emigration,  death,  and 
defection.  The  older  people  are  getting  older  and 
will  soon  be  gone  ;  but  few  of  the  young  people  are 
being  brought  into  the  Church.  Some  of  them  go 
to  other  Churches. 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  285 

The  Baptists — the  missionary  Baptists,  we  mean — 
are  "wise  in  their  generation."  They  have  been 
concentrating  of  late.  They  have  a  few  strong,  well 
located  Churches — the  river  in  one  end  of  the 
county  and  the  creek  in  the  other  winding  about 
quite  conveniently.  Now  and  then  they  get  some 
of  Hopewell's  young  people.  Old  Sister  Greatheart 
took  a  quiet  cry  when  they  told  her  that  one  of  her 
granddaughters,  and  a  namesake  at  that,  had  been 
**  immersed."  We  have  not  the  heart  to  blame  the 
child  much.  Bethabara  has  a  very  good  Sunday- 
school  in  which  Bessie  learned  some  very  sweet 
songs,  and  there  was  a  crowd  there  and  it  looked 
like  something.  For  our  part  we  had  a  thousand 
times  rather  she  would  join  at  Bethabara  than  stay 
out  in  the  cold.  But  some  of  the  young  people  go 
nowhere,  unless  it  be  to  a  singing-match  at  some 
neighbor's.  This  furnishes  a  pretext  for  idling  and 
talking  through  the  Sunday. 

Widow  Greatheart  took  a  much  harder  cry  soon 
after  Bessie's  conversion  when  she  learned  that  Bes- 
sie's brother  had  spent  a  whole  Sunday  rabbit  hunt- 
ing. It  was  enough  to  have  broken  his  old  grand- 
father's rest  if  he  only  knew  it.  We  hope  he  did 
not.  We  heard  a  quaint  old  preacher  say  once : 
"  No  bad  news  goes  to  heaven ;  all  letters  sealed  in 
black  go  to  hell."     Who  knows  ? 

What  has  all  this  to  do  with  our  friend  the  cotton 
planter,  who  is  young,  educated,  and  a  Methodist? 


286  Our  Children. 

Much  every  way.  First  of  all  he  lives  there,  and 
not  by  chance.  His  father  owned  the  place  before 
the  war  and  kept  a  ''  quarter  "  there.  Since  the 
war  the  old  gentleman  has  died — entered  into  his 
eternal  rest,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe.  In  the 
division  of  his  estate  this  out-of-the-way  place  fell  to 
our  friend,  his  eldest  son.  He  does  not  like  living 
there,  and  this  is  natural.  It  seems  never  to  have 
occurred  to  him  that  there  may  be  a  providence 
in  his  going  there  to  live.  But  he  may  be  sure 
of  one  thing  —  it  did  not  all  come  about  by 
chance.  A  man's  life  in  this  world  is  not  ordered 
by  chance. 

It  is  quite  true  that  money-getting  carried  our 
young  friend,  Mr.  John  Pushon,  to  the  Hopewell 
neighborhood,  but  he  must  mix  his  religion  with  his 
business  or  he  will  lose  his  religion,  and  perhaps 
fail  in  his  business.  We  hope  so,  at  any  rate,  for 
nothing  is  plainer,  as  we  read  the  Book  of  God  and 
the  book  of  human  life,  than  that  the  more  a  man 
succeeds  in  this  world,  if  at  the  expense  of  his  re- 
ligion, the  worse  it  is  for  him.  He  who  wins  what 
men  call  prosperity  on  any  other  plan  than  God's 
plan  wins  ruin. 

Now  young  Pushon's  tastes  incline  him  to  keep 
his  membership  in  the  town  Church,  ten  miles  off. 
He  has  not  yet  ''  taken  out  his  letter."  If  he  will 
not  '*  put  it  in  "  at  Hopewell,  he  had  better  not. 
We  have  a  young  friend  for  whom  life  has  a  bright 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  287 

and  glorious  future — unless  he  himself  spoil  and 
pervert  his  fine  gifts  and  fair  opportunities.  But  he 
^'  took  his  letter  out "  some  years  ago,  carried  it 
awhile,  and  then  destroyed  it.  We  fear  for  him. 
This  violent  sundering  of  the  last  tie  that  bound 
him  to  the  fellowship  of  the  Church  is  ominous.  It 
appears  to  us  as  if  a  planet  had  left  its  orbit  and 
were  drifting.  In  its  orbit  is  brightness  and  safety ; 
out  of  it  is  darkness  and  danger. 

But  our  young  friend's  taste  must  not  determine  a 
question  like  this.  There  is  a  higher  law  than  taste 
or  sentiment.  In  the  order  of  Providence  he  lives 
among  the  people  of  Hopewell,  and  not  among  the 
people  of  the  town  whom  he  likes  so  well — and  it  is 
his  duty  to  God  to  help  them.  They  need  help, 
the  help  he  can  give.  They  already  look  up  to  him, 
and  last  fall  changed  the  big  road  to  accommodate 
him.  Soon  afterward  he  was  called  in  to  write  a 
will  for  a  neighbor.  They  would  take  him,  young 
as  he  is,  to  be  their  Rex,  Regulator,  Can-ning  man, 
if  he  would  only  be  and  do  what  he  ought. 

Of  course  he  prefers  to  drive  to  town  on  Sunday 
morning  behind  his  quick-stepping  bays,  and  listen 
to  the  eloquent  ''  stationed  preacher."  We  may  re- 
mark, in  passing,  that  it  is  a  "  tight  squeeze  "  to  run 
the  little  town  on  the  "  station  "  schedule,  and  mak- 
ing it  a  station  nearly  killed  the  circuit  to  which  it 
used  to  belong.  Perhaps,  too,  our  friend  likes  to 
hear  the  organ  and  choir  performance.     But  shall 


288  Our  Children. 

likes,  and  preferences,  and  sentiments- -dashed  with 
a  little  carnal  pride — settle  a  question  like  this? 

We  now  call  upon  our  friend,  young  Brother 
Tushon,  to  consider,  seriously  and  prayerfully,  that 
he  is  there  with  the  Hopewell  people,  and  that 
they  need  him.  He  has  money,  education,  system, 
energ}^,  experience,  and  religion.  If  he  does  not 
use  his  gifts  he  will  lose  most,  if  not  all,  of  his  re- 
ligion. In  town  he  fills  his  pew  at  morning  preach- 
ing and  pays  his  quarterage,  but  he  is  too  far  off 
to  be  a  working  member.  But  he  does  work  his 
horses  harder  than  is  becoming  on  Sunday  when,  in 
busy  times,  he  drives  to  town  in  the  morning  and 
home  in  the  evening.  Of  course  he  misses  the 
Sunday-school  and  the  Wednesday  night  prayer- 
meeting. 

The  town  Church  *'  needs  him — but  not  much." 
They  can  do  without  him,  Hopewell  needs  him, 
and,  as  it  seems,  may  die  without  him.  And  what 
a  sad  thing  it  is  to  see  even  a  poor  little  Church  like 
Hopewell  die?     It  will  die  not  alone. 

One  other  thing  we  will  tell  our  young,  friend, 
and  we  hope  he  will  understand  it  and  take  it  kind- 
ly. He  needs  Hopeiuell.  This  he  may  not  know. 
He  may  deny  that  he  has  any  such  need,  but  he 
does  need  Hopewell  nevertheless.  Hopewell  fur- 
nishes the  best  conditions  for  his  true  spiritual 
growth.  If  he  turns  away  from  the  need  of  Hope- 
well he  will  never  be — he  can  never  be-^the  man  he 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  289 

ought  to  be — he  might  be.  True  and  earnest  work 
for  Christ  among  Christ's  poor  at  Hopewell  will  de- 
velop the  Christly  character  in  him  as  nothing  else 
in  this  world  will  or  can  do. 

When  our  young  friend  was  a  penitent — when 
deeply  convicted  of  sin  as  well  as  for  sin,  he  felt  that 
he  was  vile  as  well  as  wicked — when  he  felt  his  feet 
sinking  down  in  the  mire  of  the  horrible  pit,  then  he 
promised  God  that  he  would  do  any  thing  for  Christ 
that  he  might  require  of  him.  Will  he  keep  his 
.solemn  vow  ?  This  is  now  about  the  first  great 
duty  that  has  been  required  of  him.  God  gives  him 
opportunity  to  use  all  his  gifts  and  graces  in  build- 
ing up  Hopewell  Church.  Let  him  do  it.  Oppor- 
tunities to  do  good  never  come  by  chance.  God 
sends  them.  Every  opportunity  is  a  divine  call. 
The  house  ready  to  tumble  down,  the  scattered 
flock,  the  children  going  wild,  the  poor  lambs  hun- 
gry and  bleating  about  the  fold  and  no  shepherd  to 
care  for  and  feed  them — all  these  call  him,  as  the 
man  of  Macedonia  called  Paul  and  Silas  when  they 
were  asleep  at  Troas  and  waiting  to  know  the  will 
of  God. 

And  in  St.  Paul's  words  do  we  press  our  exhorta- 
tion upon  our  young  friend:  "As  we  have  therefore 
opportunity,  let  us  do  good  unto  all  men,  especially 
unto  them  who  are  of  the  household  of  faith." 

"Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world,"  said  the  Master. 

•*  A  city  that  is  set  on  a  hill  cannot  be  hid.     Neither 
19 


290  Our  Children. 

do  men  light  a  candle,  and  put  it  under  a  bushel,  but 
on  a  candlestick  ;  and  it  giveth  light  unto  all  that  are 
in  the  house.  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men, 
that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and  glorify 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

Fearful  is  his  guilt,  awful  is  his  responsibility  who 
*'  digs  in  the  earth  and  hides  his  Lord's  money," 
and  who,  in  the  great  day  of  account,  can  only  say, 
"  Lo,  there  thou  hast  that  is  thine  ! "  Men  talk 
of  humility,  modesty,  and  shrink  away  from  their 
work,  and  plead  '*  fear  of  the  responsibility,"  and 
decline  the  task  assigned  them.  Fear  of  responsi- 
bility, indeed  !  Well  may  they  fear  the  responsi- 
bility of  refusing  to  do  what  God  commands,  for  it 
is  heavy  indeed. 

What  a  beautiful,  holy,  and,  therefore,  happy  life 
opens  before  our  young  friend  if  he  is  only  wise 
enough  to  be  led  by  the  good  Providence  that  has 
watched  over  and  blessed  him  always.  He  may  be 
as  a  "  light  shining  in  a  dark  place."  What  a  priv- 
ilege, what  an  honor,  what  a  blessing,  to  reflect  the 
light  he  has  borrowed  from  Jesus! 

Fame  among  men  he  may  not  win  at  Hopewell, 
but  he  will  be  known  and  honored  among  the  good 
angels.  As  surely  as  God  lives  and  takes  account 
of  the  lives  of  men,  for  our  young  friend  and  for 
every  one  of  us,  the  post  of  duty — not  pleasure, 
nor  riches,  nor  fame,  nor  honor,  nor  power — is  the 
post  of  safety  and  true  blessing  for  this  world  and 


A  Light  In  a  Dark  Place.  291 

the  world  to  come.  Very  beautiful  is  the  legend, 
preserved  by  some  old  author,  of  the  monk  to  whom 
there  appeared,  while  at  prayer  in  his  cell,  a  glori- 
ous vision  of  our  Saviour.  In  silent  and  adoring 
rapture  he  gazed  upon  the  glorious  presence.  While 
he  gazed  the  hour  arrived  at  which  it  was  his  duty 
to  feed  the  poor  who  came  to  the  convent  gate  for 
their  bread.  The  bell  rang,  calling  the  monk  to  his 
humble  duty.  How  he  longed  to  stay!  But  linger- 
ing not  to  enjoy  the  vision,  he  went  his  way  to  the 
lowly  work  of  dividing  bread  among  the  poor  beg- 
gars at  the  gate.  When  he  returned  he  found  the 
blessed  vision  still  waiting  for  him.  As  he  looked 
again  he  heard  these  words,  "  Hadst  thou  stayed  I 
must  have  fled  !" 

And  it  is  always  so ;  the  Saviour  manifests  him- 
self to  those  who  do  the  work  he  has  given  them  to 
do,  no  matter  how  humble,  how  obscure  it  is.  For 
Jesus  does  not  measure  our  work  after  the  manner 
of  men.  All  work  is  great  that  he  appoints ;  all 
duty  holy  that  he  enjoins. 

As  truly  as  beautifully  does  Schiller  sing  the 
praise  of  duty  done  : — 

"  What  shall  I  do  to  be  forever  known  ? 

Thy  duty  ever. 
This  did  full  many  who  yet  slept  unknown — 

O,  never,  never ! 
Thinkest  thou,  perchance,  that  they  remain  unknown 

Whom  thoic  knowest  not  ? 
By  angel  trump  in  heaven  their  praise  is  blown, 

Divine  their  lot. 


292  Our  CinLPREN. 

"What  shall  I  do  to  gain  eternal  life? 

Discharge  aright 
The  simple  dues  with  which  each  day  is  rife  ? 

Yea,  with  thy  might. 
Ere  perfect  scheme  of  action  thou  devise 

Life  will  be  fled, 
While  he  who  ever  acts  as  conscience  cries 

Shall  live  though  dead  I " 


Stoves  as  a  Mea7is  of  Grace,  293 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

STOVES  AS  A   MEANS   OF  GRACE. 

THERE  are  many  churches,  particularly  in  the 
southern  and  western  parts  of  our  country,  in 
the  condition  of  Hopewell,  so  far,  at  least,  as  general 
discomfort  is  concerned.  At  its  annual  session,  De- 
cember, 1 87 1,  one  of  the  oldest,  strongest,  and  best 
organized  Annual  Conferences  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  appointed  a  committee 
to  investigate  the  condition  of  church  buildings. 
We  fear  much  that  this  Conference  can  make  as 
good  a  showing  as  the  average.  Since  the  session 
referred  to  there  has  been  some  improvement  in  the 
general  condition  of  church  buildings  in  this  Con- 
ference, but  not  enough  to  justify  congratulations. 

We  copy  the  report  of  the  committee,  omitting 
only  the  names  of  the  districts  lest  we  give  offense, 
numbering  them  instead. 

''  The  Committee  on  Church  Buildings  beg  leave 
to  report : — 

"There  are  in  District  No.  i,  churches,  46;  ceiled 
or  plastered,  25  ;  with  stoves,  22.  In  District  No.  2, 
churches,  53;  ceiled  or  plastered,  34;  with  stoves, 
19.  In  District  No.  3,  churches,  64;  ceiled  or 
plastered,   16;    with  stoves,   11.     In  District  No.  4, 


294  Our  Children. 

churches,  I02;  ceiled  or  plastered,  3;  with  stoves,  5. 
In  District  No.  5,  churches,  45  ;  ceiled  or  plastered, 
13;  with  stoves,  12.  In  District  No.  6,  churches, 
50;  ceiled  or  plastered,  18;  with  stoves,  18.  In  Dis- 
trict No.  7,  churches,  65;  ceiled  or  plastered,  7; 
with  stoves,  8.  In  District  No.  8,  churches,  48; 
ceiled  or  plastered,  20;  with  stoves,  14.  In  District 
No.  9,  churches,  64;  ceiled  or  plastered,  24;  with 
stoves,  31.  In  District  No.  10,  churches,  69;  ceiled 
or  plastered,  17;  with  stoves,  1 1.  Total,  churches, 
606;  ceiled  or  plastered,  177;  with  stoves,  151 ;  with- 
out ceiling  or  plastering,  429;  without  stoves,  455." 

We  have  here  a  fruitful  text,  but  it  would  take  a 
long  while  to  expound  and  apply  it.  It  contains 
history  and  prophecy,  explaining  many  failures,  and 
portending  many  more.  We  can  only  attempt,  in 
this  place,  to  indicate  some  of  the  main  points,  and 
to  make,  what  the  old  divines  used  to  call,  "some 
improvements,"  by  way  of  application. 

Here  are  606  churches,  counting  big  and  little. 
Some  of  them  are  very  little;  no  churches  at  all, 
only  preaching-places ;  often  the  neighborhood 
school-house.  Of  the  606  only  177  have  ceiling  or 
plastering:  429  of  them  are  shells,  only  weather- 
boarded,  or  else  logs,  with  cracks  between  of  indefi- 
nite size  and  number.  These  429  unceiled,  un- 
plastered  shells,  or  log-pens,  make  out  a  ''  true 
bill "  against  us. 

It   is   not  a  question  of  mere   poverty;    a   great 


Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Grace.  295 

many  of  these  little  frames,  shells,  and  pens  were 
built  before  the  war.  Many  of  them  were  found  in 
rich  neighborhoods.  People  who  lived  in  fine  houses 
were  content  to  worship  in  log-pens.  And  even 
since  the  war,  in  many  communities,  these  wretched 
apologies  for  churches  are  out  of  all  relation  to  the 
comfort  and  ability  of  the  people  who  live  around 
them.  We  have  gone  to  meeting  with  people  who 
lived  in  fine  houses,  displayed  silver  on  their  tables, 
walked  on  carpets,  and  rode  in  carriages,  to  worship 
in  a  little  twenty  by  thirty  frame,  or  pen,  with  big 
cracks,  loose  floors,  '^  puncheon "  seats,  and  other 
appropriate  accompaniments.  There  is  no  fancy  in 
this  picture — nothing  but  hard,  cold  fact.  The 
memory  of  such  places  almost  brings  back  the  chills 
we  had  in  trying  to  preach  in  them.  We  can  give. 
by  the  dozen,  names,  places,  and  dates.  On  this 
subject  wx  have  been  slow  to  learn  and  slower  to 
reform.  Such  is  the  present  state  of  facts.  It  is 
not  creditable  to  our  past  history,  or  encouraging 
for  our  future  prospects. 

Of  606  churches,  429  were  without  ceiling  or  plas- 
tering, and  455  without  stoves;  177  were  ceiled  or 
plastered,  and  151  had  stoves.  A  number  of  the 
ceiled  or  plastered  houses  are  without  stoves,  so 
that  we  find  a  number,  iinceiled  and  unplastered, 
with  stoves.  In  such  a  case  the  stove  is,  of  course 
at  a  disadvantage. 

What  discomfort  these  fig^ures  reveal !    O,  brother 


296  Our  Children. 

preacher,  trying  to  preach  with  chattering  teeth! 
O,  shivering  remnants  of  congregations,  trying  to 
hear  such  a  preacher  with  cold  toes,  and  blue  noses, 
and  chattering  teeth  also  !  let  us  all,  preachers  and 
hearers,  join  hands,  and  hearts,  and  voices,  and 
pens,  dind purses,  and  remedy  these  things! 

What  are  some  of  the  results?  In  the  first  place, 
our  Sunday-schools  in  nearly  all  country  places 
break  down  inevitably  soon  after  the  first  white- 
frost  in  October,  and  then  go  into  torpor  and  semi- 
death,  what  we  call  "  winter-quarters,"  till  the  flowers 
come  again  in  the  spring. 

Here  let  us  press  what  a  great  many  do  not  seem 
rightly  to  apprehend — the  great  body  of  our  south- 
ern and  western  people  live  in  the  country  and  in 
the  small  villages.  Of  large  cities  there  are  but 
few.  Ours  is  a  rural,  agricultural  population.  We 
took  the  trouble  once  to  look  somewhat  carefully 
into  this  matter.  Taking  the  statistical  reports  of 
one  Southern  Conference  for  1870  we  found  a  total 
membership  of  41,247.  Now  what  proportion  of 
these  members  belonged  to  what  we  call  "  stations," 
that  is,  charges  that  enjoy  the  weekly  sermons  and 
the  exclusive  pastoral  services  of  their  preacher? 
To  the  stations  of  this  Conference  there  belonged, 
in  1870,  6,101  members,  leaving  35,146  in  the  cir- 
cuits. In  another  conference  for  that  year  we  found 
a  total  membership  of  22,657;  of  these  4,212  be- 
longed to  the  stations,  18,445  ^o  ^^e  circuits. 


Stoves  as  a  Meajis  of  Grace.  297 

The  circuits  are  made  up  of  the  country  churches 
and  the  small  villages.  The  great  part  of  our  popu- 
lation, as  well  as  of  our  membership,  live  in  the  vil- 
lages and  in  the  country.  Some  persons,  in  their 
theories,  plans,  and  law-making,  seem  to  overlook 
these  facts.  In  this  they  are  not  wise.  We  should, 
by  all  means,  adapt  our  plans  to  the  needs  of  the 
few  large  cities  we  have,  but  let  us  also  remember 
who  and  what  our  people  are,  where  and  how  they 
live. 

These  figures — in  one  conference  6,101  members 
in  the  stations  and  35,146  in  the  circuits,  in  the 
other  4,212  in  the  stations  and  18,445  ^^  the  circuits 
— will  show  how  important  is  every  thing  that  re- 
lates to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  our  people  who  live 
in  the  rural  districts.  For  the  great  majority  of 
them  live  there.  Whatever,  therefore,  contributes 
to  the  efficiency  of  these  wonderful  '*  circuits" 
blesses  the  whole  people,  for  it  blesses  the  great 
majority  of  them  ;  whatever  hinders  the  circuit,  hin- 
ders the  whole  Church.  Now  the  great  majority  of 
the  455  Churches,  mentioned  above,  that  are  with- 
out stoves,  and  of  the  429  that  are  neither  ceiled 
nor  plastered,  belong  to  the  circuits.  When  we 
write,  therefore,  of  stoves  as  a  means  of  grace,  we 
are  considering  a  subject  of  at  least  very  general 
importance.  As  a  matter  of  course,  with  such  un- 
furnished and  uncomfortable  churches  the  majority 
of  our  country  Sunday-schools  must,  of  necessity, 


298  Our  Children. 

suspend  during  the  winter  months.     How  great  is 
this  evil,  and  how  wide-spread  ! 

A  few  years  ago  a  dear  little  girl  living  some- 
where in  Arkansas  wrote  us  a  letter  which  only  told 
what  thousands  of  children  might  have  wTitten  of 
hundreds  of  Churches.  We  give  her  letter  entire, 
except  the  address,  the  signature,  and  a  personal 
item : — 

"  Our  Sunday-school  closed  a  few  weeks  ago  in 
consequence  of  the  cold  weather,  and  we  are  obliged 
to  spend  the  Sabbath  at  home.  How  I  wish  we 
could  always  have  Sunday-school !  I  like  so  much 
to  go  to  Sunday-school  and  read  my  Testament.  I 
like  to  study  for  the  prizes  offered  by  our  superin- 
tendent, all  of  which  are  so  nice.  But  I  like  most 
to  learn  something  about  our  Saviour  and  his  fol- 
lowers. But  I  will  anxiously  await  the  approach  of 
spring,  and  the  opening  of  our  much-loved  Sunday- 
school. 

December  %,  1871. 

And  yet  the  people  in  her  neighborhood  did  not 
freeze  around  their  comfortable  fires  at  home,  and 
nothing  went  into  winter-quarters  but  the  Sunday- 
school  and  the  Church  ;  unless,  indeed,  we  should 
add  the  snakes,  bears,  mud-turtles,  and  such  like. 
Notably  the  devil  went  into  no  winter-quarters. 
His  schools  were  kept  open,  and  warm,  and  full. 
The  ball-room,  the   drinking  saloon,  the  gambling 


Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Grace,  299 

den — these  managed  to  keep  themselves  warm  and 
crowded.  Would  that  we  could  write  words  that 
would  kindle  fire  enough  to  thaw  some  of  these 
little  country  schools  and  Churches  out  of  their  an- 
nual torpor! 

One  great  trouble  results  from  the  habit  of  sus- 
pending in  October.  It  is  plainly,  with  most  of 
them,  a  chronic  case.  In  most  country  churches 
nothing  else  is  attempted  or  expected.  The  schools 
fade  and  die,  and  fall  as  regularly  as  the  leaves  do. 
Most  people  seem  to  think  that  it  is  equally  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  We  know  some  schools  that  have  a 
formal  meeting  in  October.  They  sing,  speak,  eat, 
sing  and  speak  again,  march  and  countermarch,  and 
then  adjourn  to  a  day  set  somewhere  about  the  first 
Sunday  in  the  next  April !  They  actually  march 
into  their  winter  graves  with  banners  flying  and  to 
the  sound  of  music  !  They  call  it  the  "  fall  picnic ! " 
To  us,  it  looks  very  like  a  funeral. 

But  really  this  is  far  better  than  another  and 
more  common  plan — rather  no  plan — falling  to 
pieces  by  degrees.  If  our  schools  will  not,  or  can- 
not, go  on  through  the  entire  winter,  by  all  means 
let  them  adjourn  in  good  order,  with  a  pledge  all 
round  to  meet  as  soon  next  February  as  the 
"  hedge-hog,  coming  out  of  his  hole,  can  see  his 
shadow  in  the  sun,"  or,  at  farthest,  as  soon  as  the 
buds  begin  to  swell.  But,  at  best,  it  is  a  sad 
busines5.  this  packing  up  song-books,  folding  away 


300  Our  Children. 

•  banners,  breaking  up  classes  for  nearly  six  months 
in  the  year. 

We  have  reason  to  believe  that  of  something  over 
300,000  children  reported  in  the  Sunday-school  sta- 
tistics of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South — 
and  we  are  persuaded  our  beloved  Southern  Baptist 
brethren  are  no  better  off — at  least  one  hundred  and 
fifty  tJioiisand  are  annually  denied  the  benefit  of 
Sunday-school  instruction  during  the  entire  winter. 
This  is  a  woeful  state  of  things — the  loss  and  damage 
we  suffer  are  incalculable.  We  lose  time,  books, 
organization,  esprit^  opportunity,  every  thing  that 
makes  a  Sunday-school  good  and  useful.  We  ravel 
out  like  an  unhemmed  carpet ;  we  rust  out  like  pol- 
ished steel  exposed  to  salt  water  and  all  changes  of 
weather.  The  trouble  of  organization  has  to  be 
gone  through  with  every  spring;  a  month  or  two 
passes  away  before  the  machinery,  rusted  by  ex- 
posure to  winter  rains,  gets  into  working  order.  O, 
the  loss  of  time,  waste  of  power,  neglect  of  op- 
portunity— of  opportunity  that  can  come  no  more 
forever ! 

Last  winter  we  passed  a  field  where  a  fifteen-dol- 
lar plow  was  standing  in  the  last  furrow  it  made. 
There  it  had  been  standing  for  months.  It  was  red 
with  rust — the  stock  and  handles  black  with  mildew. 
The  man's  wagons  were  out  in  the  yard  ;  a  M'Cor- 
mick  reaper  was  divided,  part  in  the  yard,  part  in 
the    field,  and    part    under  shelter ;    and   his    farm 


Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Grace.  301 

under  mortgage  for  the  guano  he  had  used  to  make 
cotton  enough  to  pay  for  the  tools  and  implements 
he  bought  last  year !  His  smoke  house  was  in  Cin- 
cinnati, his  corn  crib  in  Chicago  !  The  few  hogs  he 
had  were  in  his  garden ;  while  his  poor  cows — their 
hair  turned  the  wrong  way  in  premonition  of  their 
death  in  the  spring — were  drawn  up  in  a  shivering 
group  around  a  pile  of  straw  that  was  rotting  in  the 
field  !  There  were  five  dogs,  and  not  a  ram,  ewe, 
wether,  or  lamb — black  sheep  or  white  sheep — in 
sight !  And  yet  this  man  was  a  member  of  ''  Mount 
Hope  Grange,"  attended  agricultural  conventions, 
and  talked  about  farming  and  co-operative  industry ! 

How  much  wiser,  thriftier  are  we  with  four  hun- 
dred and  twenty-nine  churches  in  one  Conference 
without  ceiling  or  plaster,  mere  shells  and  log- 
pens,  and  many  of  them  with  only  board  covers — 
with  four  hundred  and  fifty-five  churches  without 
stoves? 

What  does  it  all  mean?  How  in  the  world  did 
we  ever  fall  into  such  a  style  of  doing  things  ?  And 
what  are  we  going  to  do  about  it  ? 

We  hibernate,  but  the  devil  does  not.  What 
royal  sport  he  has  about  Christmas,  catching  our 
young  people  who  have  neither  preaching  nor  Sun- 
day-school !  Young  blood  does  not  go  to  sleep ; 
and  while  their  timid  fathers  are  trying  to  keep 
warm  at  home,  the  young  people  are  seeking  enter- 
tainment abroad. 


302  Our  Children. 

But  there  is  no  Sunday-school.  One  "  monthly 
appointment  "  is  "  called  in  "  during  the  transition 
of  the  Annual  Conference,  so  that  at  least  two 
months  pass  away — as  we  saw  in  the  case  of  Hope- 
well Church  in  our  last  chapter — before  circuit 
preaching  comes  again.  If  it  should  rain  on  the 
Sabbath  of  the  first  appointment,  it  frequently  hap- 
pens that  three  months  pass  away  before  the  old 
log-house  is  opened,  unless  some  good  local  preacher 
goes  through  the  form  of  worship  with  a  shivering 
skeleton  of  a  congregation,  the  preacher  too  cold  to 
preach,  and  the  people  too  cold  to  hear.  Thus  it 
comes  to  pass  that  the  whole  machinery  runs  down. 
The  Sunday-school  goes  first,  the  prayer-meeting 
soon  follows,  and  preaching  becomes  a  penance  on 
cold  Sundays,  if  it  is  attempted  at  all. 

These  uncomfortable  churches  are  responsible  for 
many  things  besides  the  death  of  hundreds  of  Sun- 
day-schools, and  what  a  "  slaughter  of  the  inno- 
cents "  this  is  ! 

This  state  of  things  touches  the  finances  of  the 
preachers  most  materially.  The  people  do  not  go 
to  Church,  the  steward  does  not  see  them,  and 
the  preacher  does  not  get  his  money.  We  remem- 
ber one  Quarterly  Conference — we  could  easily  give 
names — in  a  certain  circuit  in  Georgia,  in  1869. 
There  were  seven  or  eight  churches,  most  of  them 
stoveless  and  cheerless  as  could  be.  There  was  one 
little  church  that  was  thoroughly  comfortable.     It 


Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Grace.  303 

was  plcistered  around  and  ceiled  above.  They  had 
a  good  stove,  and  the  fire  was  kindled  every  Sunday 
morning  with  dry  wood  kept  for  the  purpose.  They 
had  never  gone  into  winter-quarters — congregation 
and  Sunday-school  running  a  steady  schedule  all  the 
year  round.  That  Church  came  within  a  few  dol- 
lars of  paying  its  whole  assessment  for  the  year  at 
the  first  Quarterly  Conference,  held  in  February.  It 
paid  twice  as  much  as  all  the  rest  put  together. 

After  comparing  a  great  many  facts  we  found  the 
following  to  be  a  general  rule :  The  more  comforta- 
ble the  house,  the  better  the  pay  during  the  winter 
months;  the  meaner  the  house  the  smaller  the  pay. 
And  this  does  not  depend  on  the  matter  of  compar- 
ative ability.  But  churches  that  are  frozen  all  win- 
ter never  pay  much  till  another  summer  thaws  them 
out,  and  another  crop  brings  relief. 

In  the  North  and  North-west  the  winter  is  the  re- 
vival season.  It  is  a  time  of  abundant  leisure,  and 
the  severity  of  the  climate  has  compelled  the  people 
to  provide  against  it.  In  Maine  and  Minnesota  they 
make  their  churches  comfortable  enough  in  the 
depth  of  winter — even  with  snow  piled  up  to  the 
window-sills — for  profitable  protracted  and  revival 
meetings.  They  have  found  out  the  value  of 
comfortable  churches.  Unfortunately,  perhaps,  our 
Southern  winters  are  not  rigorous  enough  to  com- 
pel us  to  make  adequate  provisions  for  them,  but 
too  cold  to  be  comfortable  without  fire. 


304  Our  Children 

A  winter  revival  in  a  Southern  country  church 
would  be  a  phenomenon.  We  remember  one  in- 
stance in  the  mountain  region  of  Cherokee,  Georgia. 
It  was  a  quarterly  meeting  occasion  at  one  of  those 
wretched  little  log-houses,  with  a  big  door  at  one 
end  and  a  big  fire-place  at  the  other,  the  door  gen- 
erally open  and  the  fire-place  generally  fireless.  It 
was  in  March  and  unusually  balmy  for  the  season. 
On  Saturday  night  three  persons  presented  them- 
selves for  prayer,  and  one  of  them  professed  conver- 
sion. Next  morning,  lying  awake  with  our  eyes 
shut,  in  the  "  big  room  "  of  our  host,  while  the 
brethren  who  spent  the  night  with  us  were  talking 
around  the  fire,  a  brother  began  to  comment  on  the 
meeting  of  the  night  before.  We  were  trying  to 
make  out  our  plan  of  the  morning  sermon,  but  one 
remark  of  the  brother  effectually  broke  up  our  ser- 
monizing. He  spoke  of  the  three  persons  who  went 
forward  for  prayer,  and  particularly  of  the  one  who 
professed  conversion.  It  had  surprised  him  much, 
and  he  told  more  than  he  knew  of  "  Salem's  "  his- 
tory in  his  comment:  ''Well,  I  never  did  see  any 
body  converted  this  time  of  the  year  before  !  "  The 
period  between  "  laying-by "  and  *'  fodder-pulling 
time"  was,  in  his  opinion,  the  true  canonical  revival 
season.  Ke  really  seemed  to  doubt  whether  the 
person  who  had  ''  professed"  was  truly  converted  — 
was  it  not  the  wrong  time  of  the  year? 

Hqw  much  bad  preaching  has  been  done  because 


Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Graee.  305 

the  preacher's  toes  were  cold,  his  hands  were  cold, 
his  whole  body  cold,  his  mind  benumbed,  and  his 
poor  heart  cold  too !  How  much  bad  hearing  for 
the  3ame  reasons  !  And  how  could  preacher  or  con- 
gregation keep  warm,  when  a  dozen  big  cracks  let 
in  the  whistling  west  wind,  or  the  blighting  east 
wind?  Cracks  in  the  floor,  cracks  in  the  weather- 
boarding,  cracks  in  the  roof,  cracks  in  the  sermon, 
cracks  every-where  !  We  saw  a  church  in  January, 
1875,  that  had  over  forty  panes  of  glass  out  of  its 
windows,  and  yet  the  people — the  unreasonable 
people — complained  of  being  cold  ! 

Is  this  evil  to  go  on  forever?  Shall  we  hand 
down  to  our  children  what  is,  perhaps,  the  worst 
legacy  our  Methodist  fathers — of  blessed  memory — 
left  to  us ;  wretched  shells  and  pens  instead  of 
churches,  and,  what  is  worse,  a  state  of  chronic 
contentment  therewith? 

Now,  we  ask  in  all  soberness,  is  this  sort  of  an- 
nual hibernation,  with  perhaps  three  fourths  of  our 
country  membership,  to  become  the  settled  policy 
of  our  Church?  Then  let  us  provide  for  it  by  stat- 
ute, and  "  put  it  in  the  Discipline."  Is  it  really  a 
Wesleyar   or  an  Asburian  feature  ? 

Are  we  never  to  learn  that  what  a  few  hun- 
dred country  churches  have  done,  all  our  country 
churches  can  do — provide  comfortable  houses,  and 
keep  up  Sunday-schools,  and  prayer-meetings,  and 

profitable    preaching   perpetually?     We    can    make 
20 


3o6  Our  Children. 

our  churches  comfortable.  Some  have  done  it ;  all 
can,  if  they  will. 

We  will  agree  to  debate  with  any  man  who  will 
deny  the  following  propositions: — I.  Wood  placed 
in  a  stove  and  set  on  fire  in  a  country  church  will 
generate  heat  as  certainly  as  in  a  town  church. 
2.  We  can  make  a  log-church  warm  as  easily  as  we 
can  make  a  log-dwelling  warm.  If,  after  full  and 
fair  argument  and  experiment,  we  fail  to  convince 
or  silence  him,  we  will  agree  to  give  him  up — to 
hibernation. 

We  rejoice  to  hear  of  fine  churches  erected  in  the 
cities — provided  our  people  do  not  go  over  their 
ears  and  eyes  in  debt  for  them.  We  are  not  afraid 
that  too  many  will  be  built.  But  just  now  we  would 
rather  hear  of  a  great  number  of  well-planned, 
well-built,  well-furnished  churches  dedicated  in  the 
country.  Our  brethren  in  the  country  are  able  to 
provide  themselves  with  comfortable  churches.  Let 
the  reform  begin.  And  let  them  begin  in  time.  A 
prudent  man  gets  ready  for  winter  before  winter 
comes.  The  example  of  the  man  who  would  not 
patch  his  broken  roof  "  in  fair  weather  because  then 
it  didn't  leak,  nor  in  bad  weather  because  he  wouldn't 
work  in  the  rain  to  patch  any  body's  roof,  even  his 
own,"  is  not  to  be  commended  for  its  far-sightedness. 

If  Hopewell,  or  Speedwell — and  this  last  was  the 
very  pokiest  church  we  ever  knew — has  a  good 
house  that  only  needs  a  stove,  let  them  buy  a  stove. 


Stoves  as  a  Means  of  Grace.  307 

If  the  house  is  only  a  hull,  plaster  or  ceil  it.  If  it 
is  only  a  log-house,  and  they  can  do  no  better,  God 
will  accept  the  log-house  and  bless  the  people  when 
they  worship  in  it,  if  tJicy  "  chink  the  cracks!'  and 
make  it  warm  enough  for  their  children  to  study  GocTs 
word  in  I  But  will  he  accept  a  house  with  huge 
spaces  between  the  logs,  that  lets  in  the  cold  to 
drive  out  his  children  ?     We  trow  not. 

One  thing  more  we  say  at  this  place,  and  the  fact 
we  commend  to  the  meditations  of  all  concerned : 
it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  children  that  our  Sunday- 
schools  are  broken  up  during  the  winter. 

O  for  some  country  Haggai,  with  the  true  fire  of 
a  reformer  and  the  true  spirit  of  temple-building  in 
him,  to  rise  up  in  our  midst  and  preach  to  us  "  re- 
pentance;" repentance  for  our  thousands  of  bleak 
and  cheerless  ''  meeting-houses,"  for  our  suspended 
Sunday-schools,  broken-down  prayer-meetings,  our 
scattered  congregations,  and  our  poorly  paid  preach- 
ers !  How  pitiable  would  be  our  condition  if  we 
could  do  no  better !  how  guilty  our  negligence,  and 
indifference,  and  indolence,  and  stinginess  when  we 
can  do  better — when  we  can  make  the  house  of  God 
as  comfortable  at  least  as  we  have  made  our  own  ! 

We  have  been  going  on  in  this  bad  way  for  near- 
ly two  generations.  Do  we  intend  to  go  on  in  this 
way  forever? 


3o8  Our  Children. 


CHAPTER  rx. 

BUILDING    DIKES. 

OUR  last  chapter  was  on  building  comfortable 
churches ;  we  come  now  to  speak  of  a  differ- 
ent, but  altogether  indispensable,  work  to  be  done — 
we  must  build  dikes. 

The  wise  Hollanders  built  immense  sea-walls  to 
prevent  the  overflow  of  lands  reclaimed  from  the 
ocean.  Much  of  the  fairest  and  most  fertile  of  this 
rich  and  populous  State  is  "  reclaimed  land."  Long 
and  hard  was  the  fight  with  the  sea,  but  labor 
and  patience  have  had  their  reward.  It  is  really  a 
wonderful  story — the  dikes  of  Holland,  their  build- 
ers, and  their  uses.  But  it  can  only  be  sketched  in 
meager  outline  here.  We  borrow  the  language  of  a 
writer  in  Appleton's  Cyclopedia : — 

"  In  Holland  are  the  most  remarkable  dikes  in 
the  world.  Their  immense  importance  may  be 
appreciated  from  the  fact  that  a  single  inundation 
from  the  sea  in  the  year  1277  caused  the  destruc- 
tion of  forty-four  villages;  and  in  1287,  only  ten 
years  afterward,  eighty  thousand  persons  were  de- 
stroyed by  another,  and  its  present  shape  and  ex- 
tent were  given  to  the  Zuydcr  Zee.  In  the  fif- 
teenth century  about  one  hundred  thousand  persons 


Building  Dikes.  309 

were  destroyed  through  the  imperfection  of  the 
dikes,  when  their  construction  was  undertaken  in 
the  most  thorough  manner,  and  a  law  was  enacted 
enforcing  their  being  kept  in  order.  At  present 
this  work  is  conducted  on  a  systematic  plan,  and  at 
great  cost.  Embankments  are  made  toward  the  sea 
with  heavy  timbers  filled  in  with  stone,  and  the 
surface  is  covered  with  bundles  of  flags  and  reeds 
fastened  down  by  stakes.  Piles  also  are  driven  into 
the  sand,  and  protected  by  planking  as  well  as  by 
earth,  turf,  and  stones. 

"■  These  artificial  dikes  are  often  forty  feet  above 
ordinary  high  water,  and  wide  enough  at  the  top 
for  a  common  roadway.  Frequently  the  slopes  are 
covered  with  wicker  work,  made  of  willow  twigs, 
and  the  willow  tree  is  extensively  cultivated  to 
furnish  these  supplies,  which  require  frequent  re- 
moval, as  also  to  bind  together  by  its  roots  the  loose 
sands.  Walls  of  masonry  are  built  in  some  of  the 
most  exposed  situations,  and  rows  of  piles  outside 
protect  the  dikes  from  the  action  of  the  waves. 

**  It  is  estimated  that  the  annual  expense  of  keep- 
ing up  the  dike  of  Helder  and  that  of  West  Cappel, 
at  the  western  extremity  of  the  Island  of  Walchcr- 
en,  is  about  $30,000  each.  The  whole  expenditure 
in  Holland  for  maintaining  its  dikes  and  regulat- 
ing its  water  levels  is  annually  from  $2,000,000  to 
$2,500,000.  Engineers  are  constantly  employed 
and  every  provision  is  made  of  materials  that  may 


310  Our  Children. 

be  required  for  constant  repairs.  Watchmen  are 
employed  during  the  winter  months  to  patrol  the 
dikes  by  day  and  by  night,  and  give  alarm  when- 
ever the  danger  appears  imminent,  and  the  tide 
threatens  to  overflow.  The  people  then  hasten  to 
the  point,  and  by  mats  of  straw  and  rushes,  and 
large  sheets  of  sail-cloth  buried  in  the  sand,  they 
raise  a  temporary  bulwark,  to  be  more  securely  built 
before  the  approach  of  the  next  tide." 

Now,  as  it  seems  to  us,  we  live  in  a  time  and  in  a 
country  where  broadly-laid  and  strongly-built  dikes 
must  be  raised  to  prevent  overflow  of  the  fair  in- 
heritance our  fathers,  by  the  grace  of  God,  re- 
claimed from  the  sea  and  handed  down  to  us. 
Whatever  is  good  in  our  civilization  is  so  much, 
by  God's  blessing,  reclaimed  from  the  sea  of  this 
world's  corruption. 

We  have  no  sympathy  with  croakers  and  whiners. 
We  do  by  no  means  believe  that  the  world  has 
seen  its  best  days — its  true  *'  golden  age  "  is  before 
us,  not  behind  us.  We  do  not  believe  the  Church 
used  to  be  better  than  she  is  now.  On  the  contra- 
ry, the  world,  as  we  truly  believe,  is  better  than  it 
ever  was.  And  the  Church,  we  make  no  question,  is 
also  better  than  she  ever  was.  There  were  never  so 
many  people  reading  God's  word  and  trying  to  obey 
It ;  there  were  never  so  many  recognizing  God's 
government  and  endeavoring  to  live  according  to  its 
statutes;  there  were  never  so  many  praying;  there 


Building  Dikes,  311 

were  never  so  many  true  lovers  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  there  were  never  so  many  trying  to  extend 
his  blessed  kingdom  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth. 

But  evil  is  also  strong  and  wide-spread.  The 
"  devil  is  loosed,"  the  "  powers  of  darkness  "  have 
developed  an  intenser  activity  than  at  any  former 
period.  The  enemies  of  our  Lord  and  his  Church 
are  more  bitter  and  relentless,  as  well  as  more  active 
and  capable,  than  ever  before.  True,  the  Church  is 
far  more  able  to  meet  and  withstand  these  attacks 
than  at  any  former  period.  But  the  Church  should 
indulge  no  dreams  of  millennial  peace.  ''  By  day  and 
by  night "  her  watchmen  should  ''  patrol"  her  dikes 
that  they  may  give  the  alarm  whenever  the  sea 
threatens  to  break  in  upon  us.  If  we  will  only  listen 
we  can  always  hear  its  sullen  roar,  for  it  is  close  by. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  plan  of  this  little  volume  to 
write  a  long  indictment  of  the  times  in  which  we 
live.  But  some  dangers  are  so  imminent  that  the 
most  inexperienced  eye  may  detect  them,  and  so 
great  that  the  humblest  of  us  all  may  well  lift  up  his 
voice  to  swell  the  cry  of  alarm. 

First  we  may  mention  the  intense  materialism, 
tending  fast  to  downright  atheism,  that  has  so 
largely  taken  possession  of  the  teachers  of  natural 
science  in  our  time.  This  evil  spirit  having  once 
been  cast  out  of  science,  has  ''  walked  to  and  fro  " 
in  the  earth  *'  seeking  dry  places,"  and  finding  none, 


312  Our  Children. 

has  returned  to  his  old  lodging.  *'  Finding  It  empty, 
swept,  and  garnished,"  he  has  entered  into  it  again, 
and  the  "  last  state  "  of  its  victim  ''  is  worse  than  the 
first." 

The  names  of  the  leaders  of  this  new  crusade 
against  Christianity — for  that  is  what  this  material- 
ism means,  hatred  of  Christ  and  his  Church — we 
need  not  name  here.  But  their  pernicious  doctrines 
are  filtering  down  to  the  most  unlettered  of  the  peo- 
ple. Reviews,  magazines,  newspapers,  pamphlets, 
lectures,  and  even  text-books,  are  spreading  far  and 
wide,  to  the  very  best  of  their  ability,  the  chilling 
and  blighting  skepticism  of  their  first  propounders 
and  apostles. 

The  wonderful  material  progress  of  our  country 
has  brought  many  evils  in  its  train.  It  has  devel- 
oped an  all-devouring  worldliness  that  corrupts  so- 
ciety. It  has  brought  into  being  a  hundred  essen- 
tially false  notions  of  life — its  true  end  and  true  bless- 
edness.    It  has  brought  luxury  and  corruption. 

The  influx  of  several  millions  of  foreigners,  with 
little  sympathy  with  our  people  or  their  institutions, 
in  some  cases  speaking  a  different  language  and 
professing  a  different  faith,  or  repudiating  all  faith, 
has  brought  an  evil  and  disintegrating  element  into 
the  very  heart  of  our  civilization. 

Rome — learning  nothing  that  is  good  and  forget- 
ting nothing  that  is  bad — is  p-lanning  for  new  con- 
quest  in  our  western  republic.     Baffled  in  Europe, 


Building  Dikes.  313 

«he  reappears  in  this  country,  to  preach  salvation  by 
sacraments  to  all  who  will  bow  down  before  her,  and 
damnation  by  priestly  malediction  to  all  who  will  be 
free  in  Christ  Jesus.  Priests,  bishops,  archbishops, 
and  cardinals — nuns,  and  monks,  and  Jesuits — they 
are  all  here.  And  they  have  brought  with  them 
every  folly  that  Rome  ever  invented,  and  every  form 
of  spiritual  tyranny  she  ever  devised.  Unchanged 
in  her  badness,  unblushing  in  the  memory  of  her 
shameful  history,  and  only  lacking  opportunity  to 
employ  the  old  and  bloody  implements  of  persecu- 
tion— the  sword,  the  fagot,  the  wheel,  the  stake,  and 
the  whole  enginery  of  the  horrible  Inquisition — the 
papacy  seeks  new  empires  in  America.  God  be 
praised  !  The  pope  cannot  now  convert  us  by  force 
of  inquisitional  machinery,  nor  burn  us  if  we  refuse 
to  kneel. 

If  any  good  souls  delude  themselves  with  the  no- 
tion that  Rome  has  been  purged  of  her  ignorance, 
her  superstition,  her  cruelty,  let  him  consider  how 
her  priests  hounded  on  the  multitude  that  murdered 
Stevens  in  Mexico,  and  let  him  contemplate  the 
poor  body  of  Guibord — six  years  unburied — laid  in 
the  grave  at  last  under  military  protection — Romish 
priests  of  high  degree  threatening  to  curse  the 
ground  where  he  sleeps  with  "  bell,  book,  and  can- 
dle," because  while  he  lived  he  dared  to  read  books 
that  their  intolerant  hierarchy  in  Rome  had  con- 
demned. 


314  Our  Children. 

In  some  parts  of  our  country  monstrous  social 
heresies  find  advocates  and  disciples.  False  notions 
of  the  relation  of  the  sexes,  with  loose  and  unscript- 
ural  divorce  laws,  are  among  the  graver  evils  that 
threaten  our  purity  and  peace.  And  in  the  same 
category  should  we  place  that  monstrous  abortion, 
falsely  called  '*  spiritualism,"  that  is  neither  science, 
nor  philosophy,  nor  religion,  but  the  scandal  of  each 
and  the  shame  of  our  generation. 

But  one  of  the  most  notable  of  all  the  evils  and 
corrupting  influences  that  characterize  this  age  is 
the  multiplication  of  bad  books,  and  the  ever  widen- 
ing circulation  of  bad  newspapers.  The  press  is 
stronger  than  Hercules,  has  more  hands  than  Bria- 
reus,  and  when  it  fairly  sets  itself  to  do  wickedness 
can  be  as  unclean  as  the  Harpies. 

We  have  no  inclination  to  denounce  the  press  of 
our  country — we  would  not,  we  do  not,  bring  whole- 
sale and  indiscriminate  accusations  against  its  con- 
ductors. The  multiplication  of  good  books  makes 
us  glad  ;  in  the  growing  influence  of  those  among 
the  newspapers  of  our  country  that  love  truth  and 
defend  it  we  rejoice.  There  were  never  so  many 
good  books  printed  and  circulated ;  there  were  nev- 
er so  many  newspapers  worthy  of  praise  and  confl- 
dence.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  were  never 
so  many  bad  books,  never  so  many  depraved  news- 
papers. Books  are  sent  out  every  month  from  re- 
spectable publishing  houses  that  are  not  fit  to  be 


Building  Dikes.  315 

read  by  a  pure  man  or  a  chaste  woman.  Hundreds 
of  influential  papers  are  unfit  to  be  read  in  the  fam- 
ily circle.  There  are  absolutely  millions  of  copies 
of  cheap  and  very  bad  novels,  and  millions  of  illus- 
trated journals  of  crime,  in  constant  circulation. 
They  are  every-where — at  hotels,  in  reading-rooms, 
in  the  cars,  in  steamboats,  at  news  stands,  on  the 
streets,  and  in  the  houses  of  the  people.  They  are 
printed  by  the  million  and  sold  and  read.  And 
the  busy  printer  can  hardly  keep  up  with  the 
demand. 

They  are  as  troublesome  and  as  loathsome  as  the 
plague  of  frogs  that  swarmed  out  of  the  Nile  and 
came  up  into  the  houses  of  the  Egyptians — cold, 
and  slimy,  and  ugly — sparing  neither  prince,  nor 
priest,  nor  slave.  Would  God  some  Moses  and 
Aaron  would  come  to  drive  them  back  to  the  ooze 
and  mud  where  they  were  born  ! 

Many  of  the  great  dailies — we  write  it  with  pro- 
found sorrow — have  done  what  they  could  to  make 
these  vile  publications  respectable  by  imitating 
their  example  and  filling  their  columns  with  the 
sickening  details  of  crime.  How  for-  six  mortal 
months,  in  the  year  of  grace  1875,  they  flooded  our 
homes  with  the  revolting  nastiness  of  a  scandal  suit 
in  Brooklyn  !  Shame  upon  them  for  the  part  they 
took  in  that  shameful  affair!  And  the  lesser  dailies 
follow  in  their  wake,  to  the  best  of  their  ability 
Crime  is  paraded  in  all  its  revolting  details,  and  we 


3i6  Our  Children. 

charge  it  upon  them  that  their  managers  do  not 
even  design  to  do  good  by  their  minute  description 
of  the  most  shameful  and  abominable  sins. 

No  ;  they  give  publicity  to  crime  and  shame  to 
sell  their  papers.  And  it  does  sell  them.  Alas ! 
that  there  are  so  many  people  who  have  such 
tastes!  Shame  on  those  who  call  themselves  ''  men 
of  letters,"  who  aspire  to  conduct  public  journalism, 
and  who,  for  the  sake  of  money,  pander  to  these 
low  and  debauched  tastes !  It  is  a  crime  against 
civilization  and  religion.  And  the  more  pretentious 
the  paper  that  pursues  such  a  course  the  greater 
the  crime. 

We  go  one  step  farther:  all  the  good  men  and 
women  in  the  country  should  unite  to  put  down 
the  corrupt  and  to  put  up  the  purest  of  our  news- 
papers. They  can  do  both  most  effectually,  and  in 
a  lawful  and  proper  manner.  Let  us  cease,  once 
and  for  all,  to  subscribe  for  papers  that  teach  infi- 
delity and  pander  to  licentiousness,  and  patronize 
only  those  that  defend  the  truth  and  foster  purity. 
This  zuill  be  effectual. 

November  26,  1875,  we  read  this  statement,  made, 
it  is  said,  by  one  who  knows:  '*  A  daily  paper  con- 
ducted on  Christian  principles  would  not  pay  ex- 
penses." This  we  do  not  believe.  But  if  it  is  so 
we  have  no  difficulty  in  the  answer :  it  is  better  to 
have  no  daily  papers  than  to  have  bad  ones. 

The  bad  books,  the  low  novels,  the  vile  illustrated 


Building  Dikes.  '  ^ly 

journals  of  crime,  and  the  dailies  that  respond  to 
the  same  inspiration,  all  taken  together,  make  up  ^ 
what  one  has  termed  '*  Satanic  Literature,"  and  an- 
other '*  The  Literature  of  Sodom."     And  the  desig- 
nations, the  descriptions,  are  just. 

Some  of  our  readers  may,  perhaps,  think  that  we 
are  unnecessarily  alarmed  on  this  subject.  However 
this  may  be,  we  are  quite  sure  that  many  persons 
are  not  alarmed  who  ought  to  be. 

We  may  profitably  quote  on  this  point  part  of  an 
article  written  by  the  Rev.  E.  A.  Rand,  and  pub- 
lished in  1873  in  the  "Christian  Banner."  His 
figures  were  taken  from  official  sources — from  the 
records,  as  we  remember,  of  the  court  before  which 
certain  arrested  parties  were  tried.   Mr.  Rand  says : — 

''The  accumulation  of  immoral  literature  in  our 
cities  is  immense.  Anthony  Comstock,  of  New 
York,  has  been  specially  conspicuous  for  his  cru- 
sade against  it.  He  reported,  at  one  date,  having 
seized  one  hundred  and  'eighty  thousand  impure 
and  obscene  pictures  and  photographs ;  five  tons  of 
impure  and  obscene  books  and  pamphlets ;  more 
than  two  tons  of  letter-press  in  sheets ;  more  than 
twenty  thousand  sheets  of  impure  songs,  catalogues, 
circulars,  and  hand-bills ;  obscene  transparent  play- 
ing cards,  five  thousand  five  hundred  to  six  thou- 
sand ;  letters  fro7n  all  parts  of  the  country,  ordering 
these  books,  etc.,  over  seventy-five  thousand.  The 
seizures   included   other   Sodom   agencies  than   lit- 


3i8  Our  Children. 

crature,  and  covered  from  six  to  twelve  months' 
time. 

"  A  later  report  of  Mr.  Comstock  mentions  fifteen 
thousand  letters  of  orders  to  dealers  and  publishers 
of  these  wares,  coming  from  pupils  of  both  sexes 
in  our  schools.  The  fact  has  come  out  that  there 
are  circulating  libraries  in  schools,  the  librarian  re- 
ceiving compensation  from  the  bookseller,  and  for 
ten  cents  pupils  can  read  any  one  of  one  hundred 
and  forty-four  volumes  of  Sodom  literature,  pub- 
lished in  New  York.  ...  In  the  discussion  of  this 
subject  it  has  come  out  that  over  six  thousand 
people  earn  their  daily  bread  in  this  traffic  of  hell 
by  scattering  every-where  these  books,  illustrations, 
and  agencies  of  Sodom.  One  dealer  was  arrested, 
and  on  opening  his  books  twenty  orders  were  found 
from  the  librarian  of  a  prominent  Western  school. 
[Parents  would  like  to  know  the  names  of  schools 
where  such  abominations  exist.] 

"  The  whole  subject  forces  upon  us  some  very  un- 
pleasant inferences.  The  booths  of  Sodom  would 
not  keep  such  wares  if  the  homes  of  Sodom  did  not 
demand  them.  The  publishers  of  immoral  litera- 
ture in  the  United  States  know  that  in  depraved 
human  nature  there  is  a  craving  for  what  they  send 
out.  We  are  getting  down  to  the  dark,  sad  fount- 
ains of  evil.  It  is  not  enough  to  bring  out  the  bat- 
tering-ram of  the  law  against  the  publishers  and  the 
sellers ;    t/te  people  who  buy  need  talking  to.      The 


Building  Dikes.  319 

generation  that  is  growing  up  needs  our  warnings 
and  instructions.  And  these  instructions  cover  a 
good  deal  of  ground.  They  are  not  to  touch  the 
subject  of  purity  in  general  and  stop  there. 

''  We  know  this  is  not  a  very  agreeable  subject. 
The  Dead  Sea  is  not  so  winning  as  the  slopes  of 
Carmel.  Prayer  is  a  far  more  beautiful  subject  to 
talk  about  than  impurity,  but  the  subject  cannot  be 
ignored  any  longer  with  safety." 

It  is  truly  time  to  speak  out  on  this  subject.  "A 
broadside  of  Sinaitic  thunder"  should  be  turned 
loose  upon  these  ramparts  and  legions  of  darkness. 

One  thing  we  will  make  bold  to  say  right  here : 
if  the  government  cannot  keep  obscene  publications 
out  of  its  mails,  it  is  weak ;  if  it  will  not,  it  is  bad. 

The  quantity  of  obscene  publications  that  go 
through  the  mails  is  not  suspected  by  one  in  a  hun- 
dred. Their  publication  is  a  crime  against  domestic 
and  social  purity,  against  civil  liberty  and  Christian 
civilization,  whose  enormity  is  immeasurable. 

They  are  conceived  in  sin  and  brought  forth  in 
iniquity.  Their  fruit  is  death.  All  concerned  in 
the  shameful  business  are  guilty  before  man  and 
God.  Those  who  write  them,  or  things  like  them, 
for  the  secular  press,  are  a  disgrace  to  the  profession 
of  letters.  They  are  the  enemies  of  the  human  race. 
Those  who  publish,  advertise,  and  sell  them — shall 
we  not  say  also,  who  read  them? — are  aiders  and 
abettors  in  the  fearful  crimes  suggested  by  them 


320  Our  Children. 

that  shock  into  daily  agonies  what  conscience  is  left 
in  the  public  mind. 

Glory  and  honor  to  Anthony  Comstock,  the  brave 
young  clerk  who,  in  New  York,  has  bearded  this 
hydra-headed  beast  in  his  den !  He  has  deserved 
well  of  his  country. 

Men  talk  of  liberty  when  they  mean  license.  Lib- 
erty of  the  press  that  allows  bad  men  to  debauch 
and  destroy  society  is  a  shame  and  a  curse.  We 
cannot  bring  ourselves  to  the  conclusion  that  gov- 
ernment is  designed  only  for  the  protection  of  crim- 
inals. The  loyal  and  the  virtuous  surely  have  some 
rights  that  government  is  bound  to  respect  and 
vindicate.  They  pay  by  far  the  largest  proportion 
of  the  taxes  to  support  the  government,  and  we 
take  leave  to  say  that  a  government  that  allows  the 
immense  machinery  of  its  postal  service  to  be  sub- 
sidized by  the  publishers  and  venders  of  obscene 
literature  betrays  its  trust,  and  is  false  to  its  best 
friends  and  truest  supporters. 

Liberty  of  the  press !  liberty  of  conscience,  in- 
deed !  What  these  people  wish  is  license  to  de- 
bauch. They  know  nothing,  care  nothing,  about 
liberty,  because  they  know  nothing  and  care  nothing 
for  truth  and  purity. 

It  is  time,  indeed,  to  speak  out  on  this  subject. 
Pure  literature,  as  well  as  pure  religion,  is  concerned 
in  this  matter.  Every  scholar  and  man  of  culture 
.should  speak  and  denounce  this  colossal  and  poi 


Building  Dikes,  321 

tentous  evil.  Preachers  of  the  Gospel  should  warn 
the  people  of  the  danger.  The  religious  press  of 
the  country  should  speak  out,  and  in  no  uncertain 
tones.  The  religious  press  can,  if  it  will  so  stir  the 
hearts  of  the  people  on  this  subject  that  our  rulers 
will  be  glad  enough  to  mend  their  ways ;  and  rail- 
road and  steamboat  managers  will  cease  to  allow 
the  peddling  of  obscene  wares  in  every  car  and  in 
every  boat  that  carries  passengers. 

The  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  country  should 
take  this  matter  in  hand.  Vain  the  sacred  culture 
of  pure  and  religious  homes  if  the  streams  of  pollu- 
tion flow  through  their  nurseries.  No  amount  of 
watchfulness  can  keep  bad  books,  lewd  prints,  and 
corrupt  papers  out  of  the  hands  of  our  children 
while  the  government  continues  to  be  their  com- 
mon carrier  and  colporteur.^  It  would  be  as  easy 
to  justify  the  government  in  scattering  small-pox 
pustules  through  its  mail-bags  because  some  villain 
might  be  found  who  would  pay  the  postage,  and  to 
claim  that  he  lives  in  a  free  country ! 

The  friends  of  true  education  should  join  the 
friends  of  true  religion  in  this  protest.  What  can 
the  most  competent  and  faithful  instructor  do  when 
his  pupils  occupy  the  recess,  or  the  night  at  home, 

*  After  this  chapter  was  written  a  twelve-year-old  son  of  the  writer 
of  this  book  received,  through  the  post-office,  a  specimen  number  of 
a  paper  we  would  not  knowingly  allow  to  come  into  our  house.  How 
do  the  publishers  of  these  things  procure  the  names  and  post-offices 
of  even  little  children  ? 
21 


322  Our  Children. 

in  gloating  over  obscene  pictures,  and  in  devouring, 
with  ever-increasing  voracity,  licentious  stories? 
Mow  can  such  minds  be  trained  to  healthy  action, 
or  stored  with  useful  information?  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances education  is  impossible. 

We  are  profoundly  sorry  to  believe  that  but  few 
of  our  secular  papers  can  be  relied  on  to  do  good 
service  in  bringing  government  to  do  its  duty  in  this 
matter.  A  few — truth,  perhaps,  requires  us  to  say 
many — of  our  secular  papers  are  the  organs  of  this 
literature  of  Sodom  ;  some  of  them  care  nothing 
about  it  so  they  have  good  subscription  lists  and 
paying  advertisements ;  some  of  them  are  really 
unfriendly  to  Christianity ;  others,  that  have  right 
views  on  the  subject,  are  afraid  to  speak  the  truth  ; 
but  there  are  others  that  believe  the  truth  and  dare 
affirm  it.  The  country  looks  to  them,  and  demands 
of  them,  as  the  best  service  they  can  render  society, 
that  they  join  all  good  men  and  women  in  protect- 
ing our  children  against  this  ''  pestilence  that  waik- 
eth  in  darkness,"  this  ''  destruction  that  wasteth  at 
noonday." 

But,  we  are  told,  Congress  has  passed  a  law  on 
this  subject.  Then  let  it  be  enforced,  without  wait- 
ing till  some  devoted  man,  like  Anthony  Comstock, 
risks  his  life  in  making  up  a  case.  If  we  have  no 
laws  that  can  protect  us,  let  us  make  them  ;  if  the 
fault  be  in  our  law-makers,  let  us  have  others. 

Now,  in  relation  to  this  whole  matter,  there  is  a 


Building  Dikes.  323 

very  great  and  needful  work  for  our  Sunday-schools 
to  do.  As  we  have  seen,  there  are  in  the  United 
States  69,871  Sunday-schools,  with  753,060  officers 
and  teachers  and  5,790,683  scholars.  Here  is  power 
to  reform  and  to  save  a  whole  nation,  if  we  know 
how  to  use  it ;  here  is  boundless  hope,  if  we  know 
how  to  work  with  God  in  bringing  up  this  army 
of  children  and  young  people  to  understand,  and 
believe,  and  love,  and  do  the  truth.  Here  are  the 
true  dike-builders ;  they  can  build  broad  and  high 
the  strong  sea-walls  that  shall  beat  back  the  devour- 
ing waves. 

It  should  be  our  prayerful  study  and  labor  to 
preoccupy  these  young  minds  and  hearts  with  the 
knowledge  and  love  of  the  truth.  In  God's  truth 
must  we  lay  the  foundations  of  the  only  dikes  that 
can  withstand  the  sea. 

If  we  would  save  our  children  from  the  gross 
materialism  in  heart  and  life  that  is  sure  to  follow 
the  present  rage  of  speculative  materialism  in  science; 
if  we  would  save  them  from  the  sordid  worldliness 
that  seems  to  be  tightening  its  grasp  upon  the 
hearts  of  our  people ;  if  we  would  save  them  from 
false  opinions  and  corrupt  practices  ;  if  we  would 
save  them  from  the  blight  and  curse  of  licentious 
literature — then  we  must  preoccupy  their  thoughts 
and  their  love  with  the  truth.  And  the  truth  they 
need  and  must  have — if  they  are  saved  from  these 
evils — is  in  God's  word  and  nowhere  else.     There  is, 


324  Our  Children. 

we  are  sure,  no  other  adequate  remedy.    How  sacred, 
then,  is  the  office  of  teacher  of  God's  blessed  word! 

In  this  whole  most  needful  work  of  dike-building 
there  is  much  that  should  be  done  through  our  Sun- 
day-school libraries.  Only  consider  the  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  books  that  are  annually 
published  and  sold  for  the  use  of  Sunday-schools. 
Through  these  books  wonders  of  prevention  and 
cure  may  be  wrought  if  we  are  only  wise  to  ''  know 
our  danger  and  our  remedy."  There  was  never  so 
much  talent  employed  in  the  production  of  Sunday- 
school  literature  ;  never  so  much  money  expended 
in  its  circulation. 

No  doubt  there  has  been  great  improvement. 
For  the  progress  that  has  been  made  we  ''  thank 
God  and  take  courage."  But  much  remains  to  be 
done  ;  there  ''  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be 
possessed."  Our  children's  books  and  papers  ought 
to  be  better  than  they  are ;  they  ought  to  exercise 
tenfold  the  influence  they  do. 

We  cannot  discuss  the  subject  as  it  deserves  in 
these  concluding  pages.  But  some  things  may,  at 
least,  be  suggested. 

Are  not  our  Sunday-schools  books  too  largely 
simply  ''story-books?"  Perhaps  nine  tenths  of 
those  that  have  the  largest  sale  are  merely  stories. 
Some  of  them  are  very  good,  some  of  them  are  very 
bad ;  many  of  them  are  simply  innocuous.  We 
must  venture  to  say  that,  in   our  humble  opinion, 


Building  Dikes,  325 

the  universal  novel-reading  mania  of  the  present 
period  is  largely  attributable  to  the  story-books  that 
fill  the  shelves  of  our  Sunday-school  libraries.  When 
novel  reading  becomes  a  mania  there  is  not  much 
wisdom  or  taste  in  the  choice  of  books.  Persons 
under  this  spell  are  like  certain  omnivorous  animals, 
they  devour  whatever  comes  to  hand,  choosing,  how- 
ever, if  they  choose  at  all,  those  books  that  shock 
their  feelings  most. 

We  have  no  fanatical  notions  on  the  subject  of 
novel  reading.  Some  novels  are  good  and  useful. 
They  ought  to  be  read.  But  where  people  will  read 
nothing  else  it  augurs  badly  for  their  true  culture, 
character,  and  usefulness.  Are  not  our  young  people 
losing,  very  largely,  their  taste  for  solid  reading? 
The  circulating  libraries  show  that  novels  are  in  far 
greater  demand  than  any  other  class  of  books,  and 
by  precisely  those  people  who,  most  of  all,  have 
need  to  read  better  books. 

We  propose,  for  our  part,  a  general  overhauling 
of  the  prevailing  theories  as  to  what  books  are  ap- 
propriate for  Sunday-school  libraries.  We  would 
enlarge  their  range,  retaining,  of  course,  all  the  best 
of  what  are  generally  and  properly  known  as  relig- 
ious books.  Such  books,  we  suppose,  should  pre- 
dominate. But  we  would  have  done  with  that 
notion  that  limits  our  selection  of  Sunday-school 
libraries  to  works  on  religion.  We  seem,  hitherto, 
to  have  proceeded  on  the  idea  that  we  must  only 


326  Our  Children. 

buy  books  suitable  for  Sunday  reading,  as  if  the 
children  had  only  Sunday  for  their  reading.  Surely 
we  have  erred  on  this  point.  There  are  six  other 
days  in  which  they  may  redeem,  from  study  or  labor, 
a  few  hours  at  least  for  the  reading  of  good  books 
If  we  had  our  way  we  would  revolutionize  the  en- 
tire theory  and  practice  of  our  schools  on  this 
subject. 

We  would  have  religious  books  most  certainly, 
and  the  best  of  them.  We  would  also  introduce,  to 
the  extent  of  our  means  to  buy  them,  and  the  needs 
of  each  particular  school,  standard  works  in  other 
departments.  We  would  introduce  the  great  poets 
and  historians.  Milton,  Young,  Shakspeare,  to  men- 
tion only  three,  ought  to  be  in  our  Sunday-school 
libraries.  So  ought  Macaulay,  Prescott,  Irving,  and 
such  other  princes  among  historians  and  essayists. 
There  should  be  books  of  travel  and  discovery. 
Our  libraries  should  be  rich  in  biography.  Here 
we  would  have  the  lives  of  the  great  leaders  of  men, 
civil  and  military,  as  well  as  religious.  And  why 
not  ?  Whatever  great  and  useful  books  young  peo- 
ple ought  to  read,  we  judge  to  be  suitable  for  Sun- 
day-school libraries.  Then  they  would  be  worth 
something ;  then  our  young  people  would  form  a 
taste  —  a  habit,  we  might  say  —  for  reading  good 
standard  books.  Once  form  such  a  habit  and  they 
never  will — they  never  can — take  pleasure  in  trash 
or  obscenity  afterward. 


Btnlding  Dikes.  327 

Three  fourths  of  the  goody  stoiy-books — full  of 
"  gush  "  and  "  bosh  "  and  unnatural  sentimentalism 
—we  would  inexorably  rule  out.  For  our  part — and 
we  say  it  boldly  and  unhesitatingly — we  would  great- 
ly prefer  to  see  our  own  children  reading  Macaulay, 
or  Prescott,  or  Motley,  or  some  other  standard  and 
pure  writer,  on  Sunday  evening  itself,  than  to  see 
them  running  through,  to  see  how  the  story  winds 
out — volume  after  volume  of  very  thin,  very  shallow, 
very  '*  goody "  little  books  of  the  nowadays  ap- 
proved Sunday-school  libraries.  Of  course,  for  their 
Sunday  reading,  we  are  not  shut  up  to  these  alter- 
natives ;  but  if  it  were  so,  we  would  not  hesitate 
one  moment  to  decide  against  the  last-mentioned 
books. 

Besides,  as  we  have  said,  they  have  six  week- 
days. Let  us  give  them  something  to  read  that  is 
worth  reading. 

We  press  the  view  the  more  earnestly,  because,  as 
we  know,  the  great  mass  of  our  people  have  com- 
paratively few  books  of  any  kind.  This  is,  perhaps, 
peculiarly  true  in  the  South  and  West.  We  are 
no  slanderers  of  our  people,  but  we  must  tell  the 
truth ;  they  are  not,  in  any  broad  sense,  a  reading 
people. 

Now,  outside  of  a  very  few  of  our  cities,  there  is 
nothing  that  deserves  the  name  of  a  circulating  li- 
brary. But  wherever  there  is  a  Sunday-school 
there  may  be,  and,  as  we  think,  ought  to  be,  a  small 


328  Our  Children. 

circulating  library — not  only  for  little  children,  but 
for  intelligent  young  people,  for  teachers,  for  par- 
ents, and  for  the  adult  members  of  the  Church  and 
congregation.  Never  fear  about  the  money.  If  we 
will  only  make  a  wise  use  of  it  and  buy  books  that 
will  make  people  wiser  and  better — books  they  need 
— books  for  week-days  as  well  as  Sunday  afternoon 
—  they  will  furnish  the  money. 

We  would  regret  to  give  offense  in  this  expres- 
sion of  very  carefully  formed  opinions  about  our 
Sunday-school  libraries.  Our  thoughts  have  long 
been  drawn  this  way.  We  have  considered  it  from 
the  stand-point  of  Sunday-school  librarian  and 
teacher;  we  have  looked  into  it  from  the  stand- 
point of  pastor  and  parent.  For  over  five  years  it 
was  almost  part  of  our  official  duty  to  consider  this 
subject  in  its  various  bearings.  We  are  deeply  con- 
scientious in  what  we  have  written,  and  intend, 
providence  permitting,  to  "  fight  it  out  on  this  line," 
unless  we  shall  be  brought  to  see  our  error.  And 
we  declare  ourself  open  to  conviction — willing  to  be 
convinced  and  ready  to  be  reproved. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  we  repeat  that  much 
can  be  and  should  be  done  by  our  Sunday-school 
libraries  in  "  building  dikes"  to  **  prevent  the  over- 
flow of  lands  reclaimed  from  the  sea."  This  work 
must  be  largely  done  by  preoccupying  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  children  with  the  truth.  And,  as  we 
suppose,  much  can   be  done  by  giving  them  such 


Building  Dikes.  329 

oooks  as  will  elevate  their  conceptions,  refine  their 
tastes,  and  fix  in  them  such  habits  of  thought  and 
sentiment  as  will  forever  protect  them  against  the 
dangers  from  corrupt  and  corrupting  literature, 
that  threaten  every  one  of  our  homes,  discredit 
our  civilization,  and  corrupt  our  society. 


330  Our  Children* 


CHAPTER   X. 

HINTS   ON   SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WCRK. 

OUR  chapters  have  so  grown  and  multiph'ed,  as 
we  have  written,  that  there  is  now  no  room 
for  discussing,  as  one  might  wish  to  do,  several  im- 
portant practical  questions  connected  with  the  gen- 
eral subject  of  Sunday-school  work,  without  making 
this  volume  much  larger  than  the  design  of  its  pub- 
lication would  justify.  Perhaps  it  is  better  that  it 
should  be  so.  If  the  general  principles  we  have  set 
forth — how  imperfectly  and  unsatisfactorily  we  un- 
derstand and  feel — shall  be  accepted  only  in  part, 
we  are  more  than  content.  We  have  far  more  faith 
in  ideas  than  formulas ;  in  principles  than  in  recipes. 

We  venture,  however,  in  this  concluding  chapter 
to  group,  as  seems  most  convenient,  a  few  general 
ideas — Jiints,  if  our  readers  please — which  those  who 
desire  may  expand  as  much  as  they  wish ;  and 
which  may,  perhaps,  be  suggestive  of  far  abler  dis- 
cussions of  the  subject  than  we  could  hope  to  make, 
had  we  opportunity  to  make  the  attempt. 

Nor  are  we  careful  to  reduce  these  hints  and  sug- 
gestions to  any  rigid  order  of  arrangement. 

I .  The  Model  Supcrintiiidcnt. — Some  writer,  whose 
name   we   do    not    know,    says   pithily  and   wisely: 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  331 

"  The  chief  officer  of  a  Sunday-school  should  be  a 
man  too  brave  to  be  over-sensitive,  too  pious  to 
notice  little  sources  of  irritation,  too  manly  fre- 
quently to  threaten  resignation,  too  loving  to  let 
people  remain  cold  to  him,  too  strong  to  be  dis- 
turbed by  trifles,  and  so  firm  in  nerves  as  not  to  be 
classed  with  the  sensitive  ones. 

2.  A  Christian  Education. — Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby, 
says :  '*  To  give  a  man  a  truly  Christian  education, 
is  to  make  him  love  God  as  well  as  to  know  him  ; 
to  make  him  have  faith  in  Christ,  as  well  as  to  have 
been  taught  the  facts  that  he  died  for  our  sins  and 
rose  again ;  to  make  him  open  his  heart  eagerly  to 
every  impulse  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  well  as  to  have 
been  taught  the  fact,  as  it  is  in  the  Nicene  Creed, 
that  he  is  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life." 

3.  Brilliant  but  Useless. — Many  superintendents 
and  teachers,  and  preachers  as  well,  may  lay  to 
heart,  with  great  profit  to  themselves  and  their 
charges,  the  following  story : — 

'^  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  on  visiting  Paris,  was  asked 
by  the  surgeon  en  chef  of  the  empire  how  many 
times   he   had   performed   a   certain    very   difficult 
operation.     Sir  Astley  answered  that  he  had  per 
formed  the  operation  but  thirteen  times. 

''  '■  Ah,  but.  Monsieur,'  said  the  Frenchman,  *  I 
have  done  him  one  hundred  and  sixty  times.' 

"  Sir  Astley  was  amazed.  The  curious  French- 
man, looking  at  the  Englishman's  blank  face,  asked, 


332  Our  Children. 

**  *  And  how  many  times  did  you  save  his  life?' 

"  Very  modestly  the  great  surgeon  answered,  '  I 
saved  eleven  out  of  the  thirteen.' 

It  was  his  turn  to  question,  '  And  how  many  did 
>ou  save  out  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  times?' 

"  '  Ah,  Monsieur,'  replied  the  Frenchman,  '  I  lose 
dem  all,  but  de  operation  was  very  brilliant.' " 

4.  Ainateur  Theology. — A  few  years  ago,  a  writer 
in  "  Blackwood's  Magazine "  gave  us  a  trenchant 
paper  on  the  readiness  with  which  people  who  have 
no  fitness  for  the  work  rush  into  the  field  of  theo- 
logical discussion.  Would  that  we  had  space  to  re- 
produce it ! 

When  an  over-confident  person  comes  across  some- 
thing that  is  nciv  to  hwt,  it  is  easy,  perhaps  natural, 
for  him  to  conclude  that  he  is  a  discoverer.  If  the 
world  does  not  agree  with  him,  it  is  so  much  the 
worse  for  the  world ;  if  his  opinion  is  contrary  to 
the  facts,  it  is  so  much  the  worse  for  the  facts.  The 
disposition  to  go  smashing  about  among  received 
opinions  is  not  confined  to  people  who  write  ;  talkers 
do  the  same  thing.  Few  qualities  are  required  for 
a  full  equipment  for  such  a  crusade  against  "■  author- 
ities — ignorance,  audacity,  and  flippancy  are  quite 
sufficient. 

A  few  preachers — alas!  for  their  congregations — ■ 
are  given  to  this  practice.  The  way  they  play 
*' shuttle-cock"  with  the  venerable  names  of  Calvin, 
Arminius,  Wesley,  Edwards,  Watson,  and  others  of 


Hints  on  Stmday-School  Work.  333 

"the  Fathers,"  both  ancient  and  modern,  \/ould  be 
fearful  if  it  were  not  a  farce.  It  seems  tolerably 
clear  to  us,  that  every  man  is  not  called  on  to  be 
the  discoverer  of  a  new  world,  or  the  expounder  of 
a  new  doctrine.  Nor  is  it  every  man's  mission  to 
destroy  what  he  does  not  understand. 

We  received  a  letter  once  from  a  very  young 
man,  unfortunately,  for  all  concerned,  a  teacher  of  a 
Bible-class.  Poor  man  !  poor  class  !  he  was  neither 
learned  in  the  Scriptures  nor  experienced  in  grace. 
He  was  not  himself  converted — he  himself  was  a 
stranger  to  Christ !  And  yet  somebody,  assuming 
an  awful  responsibility,  *'gave  him  a  class!"  He 
wanted  us  to  send  him  books  from  which  he  could 
expound  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  in  its  rela- 
tions to  modern  science,  and  overturn  Darwinism ! 
Others  of  his  class  have  a  strange  penchant  for  try- 
ing to  teach  the  eighth  and  ninth  chapters  of  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Romans ! 

5.  The  Argufying  Man. — The  last  paragraph  sug- 
gests a  word  or  two  about  the  man  who  has  broken 
up  many  a  Sunday-school,  and  destroyed  the  peace 
of  many  Churches — the  argufying  man.  The  ''  Lon- 
don Globe"  once  drew  his  picture  to  the  life: — 

"What  renders  it  so  difficult  to  put  up  with  the 
argufying  man  is  the  circumstance  that  he  never 
contends  for  truth,  but  for  triumph.  This  is  plain 
enough  from  the  dishonest  and  uncandid  way  in 
which  he  goes  to  work.     He  will  grant   nothing ; 


334  Our  CiiiLrREx. 

never  confesses  to  the  most  palpable  hit,  though 
you  have  bent  your  foil  against  his  pad  half-a-dozen 
limes  in  as  many  minutes ;  and  he  never  knows 
when  to  stop.  He  is  not  satisfied  with  an  imagi- 
nary victory. 

'*  Whenever  he  thinks  you  are  down  because  you 
are  silent,  he  gives  you  a  sort  of  verbal  kick,  to 
rouse  you  for  another  combat.  Loyola  was  a  simple- 
ton to  him  in  casuistry.  He  has  the  trick  of  escape 
possessed  by  that  fish  which  can  hide  from  his  ene- 
mies by  exuding  a  preparation  that  renders  the 
water  around  him  dark  and  obscure.  Without  hav- 
ing any  specific  acquaintance  with  a  topic,  which 
may  be  in  your  line  or  bent  to  understand,  he  is 
still  ready  to  contradict  a  doctor  in  medicine,  or  a 
composer  in  counterpoint.  Fly  him,  if  you  can  at 
all  with  convenience." 

6.  The  Frivolous  Teacher. — Next  to  the  "argufying 
man,"  a  frivolous  teacher  is  perhaps  the  most  injuri- 
ous person,  or  pest,  \v\\o  can  manage  to  get  into  a 
Sunday-school.  We  knew  a  frivolous  man-teacher 
once  who  nearly  paralyzed  a  school  for  a  whole  year. 
Talmage  gives  us  the  following  sketch  of  a  frivolous 
woman-teacher :  "  She  sits  down  before  her  class ; 
she  is  not  in  earnest ;  she  has  no  appreciation  of  the 
great  work  for  which  she  is  called.  She  thinks  that 
it  is  a  great  thing  to  be  a  Sunday-school  teacher. 
She  comes  in  and  says  to  the  class,  'Fine  day!* 
Then  she  arranges  her  apparel ;  then  she  gives  an 


HhiLS  on  Sunday-School  Work.  335 

extra  twist  to  the  curl,  and  looks  at  the  apparel  of 
the  children  in  the  class." 

7.  Unconverted  Persons  as  Teachers. — We  have 
about  come  to  the  co'\clusion  that  there  are  some 
questions  which  have  unanswerable  arguments  on 
both  sides.  Perhaps  this  is  one  of  them.  Such 
matters  must  be  managed.  The  pastor  and  super- 
intendent— and  if  they  are  not  on  good  enough 
terms  to  advise  together  one  or  both  of  them  ought 
to  resign — can  determine  in  each  case.  To  say  that 
nobody  who  has  not  the  full  assurance  of  conversion 
should  teach,  would  be  to  say  too  much.  To  give 
a  class  to  just  any  converted  person  who  has  a  whim 
to  teach  would  be  very  unwise.  We  know  some 
converted  people  who  are  not  fit  to  teach  :  we  know 
some  thoughtful,  devout  persons,  not  yet  converted, 
but  waiting  upon  God,  as  did  the  Roman  Cornelius, 
who  have  been  very  useful  as  Sunday-school  teach- 
ers. But  no  frivolous  man  or  woman,  who  can 
make  puns  on  sacred  words,  who  can  sit  up  and 
stare  around  during  prayers,  whose  influence  cannot 
be  good,  ought  ever  to  be  intrusted  with  young  and 
impressible  souls. 

8.  TJic  Pastor  s  Relation. — They  have  been  "argu 
fying"  about  the  pastor's  relation  to  the  school  for 
a  long  time.  To  us  it  has  always  seemed  to  be  a 
very  plain  thing — the  pastor  is  the  pastor.  He  is 
pastor  of  the  Sunday-school  for  the  same  reason  that 
he  is  pastor  of  the  Church.     V/ho  ever  heard  of  a 


336  Our  Children. 

shepherd  who  was  shepherd  of  the  sheep  but  not  of 
the  lambs?  The  duties  of  superintendent  and  pas- 
tor cannot  be  marked  out  Hke  the  rounds  of  a  sentry 
— thus  far,  and  no  farther.  Where  two  right-minded 
men  are  thrown  together  in  the  management  of  a 
Sunday-school  they  will  understand  each  other  and 
help  each  other.  When  they  do  not,  one  or  both  of 
them  deserve  censure.  Where  both  parties  have 
the  right  spirit  there  will  be  no  disturbance.  Where 
there  is  continual  difficulty  between  the  pastor  and 
the  superintendent,  and  an  ever-widening  breach 
between  the  Church  and  the  Sunday-school,  some- 
body ought  to  resign,  or  be  moved, 

9.  Teaching  the  Wrong  Thing. — The  average  life 
of  a  Sunday-school  generation  is  short — four  or  five 
years  at  most.  The  children  who  are  now  in  our 
schools  will  soon  cease  to  be  children.  We  have  an 
opportunity  now  for  teaching  them  the  things  they 
need  to  know ;  the  truths  that  may  make  them 
wise  unto  salvation.  This  opportunity  will  come  no 
more  ;  let  us  improve  it. 

The  following  little  story  has  "  a  moral :  "  In  Mr. 
Dales's  magazine  there  is  a  good  story  told  of  a 
dignitary  of  the  Church  of  England  who,  happening 
to  be  in  London,  went  to  hear  the  Dean  of  West- 
minster at  the  Abbey.  ''  How  did  you  like  the  ser- 
mon ?  "  asked  the  lady  with  whom  he  was  staying. 
''  O,"  was  the  reply,  "  it  was  very  good.  There  was 
nothing  to  object  to  in  it;    but  it  was  not  what  I 


Hints  on  Siniday-School  Work.  337 

went  to  hear.  I  went  to  hear  about  the  way  to 
heaven,  and  I  only  heard  about  the  way  to  Pal- 
estine." 

10.  Leave  Something  to  the  Iinaginatio7i. — Some- 
people  overdo  their  explanations.  They  define  and 
explain,  and  explain  and  define,  till  all  is  lost  in  a 
sea  of  words.  Some  illustrate  and  illustrate,  with 
fact,  and  story,  and  fancy  sketch,  till  the  poor  be- 
wildered child  forgets  what  it  is  that  is  being  illus- 
trated. Charles  Lamb  gives  some  advice  about 
making  speeches  that  teachers  in  Sunday-schools 
may  consider  profitably.  Perhaps,  like  the  Indian's 
tree,  he  was  so  straight  he  leaned  over  a  little  the 
other  way.  He  says  that  a  speaker  should  not  at- 
tempt to  express  too  much,  but  should  leave  some- 
thing to  the  imagination  of  his  hearers.  He  illus- 
trates his  meaning  by  telling  how  he  did  on  one  oc- 
casion when  he  was  called  on  to  respond  to  a  toast 
to  his  health.  He  rose,  bowed  to  the  audience,  put 
his  hand  upon  his  heart  and  said,  '*  Gentlemen,"  and 
then  took  his  seat,  leaving  it  to  their  imagination  to 
supply  the  rest. 

11.  Plodding  Teachers. —  Would  that  there  were 
more  such  plodders  in  our  schools  as  the  one  spoken 
of  by  the  ''  Sunday-School  Times  "  in  the  following 
extract : — 

"  Said  a  superintendent  of  one  of  his  teachers  who 

had  filled  her  place  faithfully  for  years,  but  was  one 

of   the   slow,  modest,  quiet    order:    'Yes,  she   is  a 
22 


338  Our  Children. 

good  sort  of  soul,  but  plodding — too  plodding.  I 
like  a  little  more  dash  in  a  teacher.'  '  But  how 
about  her  class,'  asked  the  friend.  *  O,  her  class  is 
always  full,  and  I  believe,  almost  all  her  scholars 
have  been  converted.'  " 

What  more,  O  foolish  man,  dost  thou  require? 
Are  teachers  for  ornament,  or  for  use  ?  For  hard 
campaign  work,  or  for  the  dress  parade  of  a  gala- 
day?  Beware  how  you  undervalue  these  plain, 
practical,  slow-going  ones.  They  have  the  Master's 
work  at  heart,  and  in  the  end  the  fruit  of  their 
labor  shall  be  seen  to  be  fairer,  richer,  and  more 
plentiful  than  that  of  the  dashing  ones — so  much  to 
your  liking. 

12.  Spastnodic  Zeal. — Plodding  zeal  is  better  than 
spasmodic  zeal.  You  can  count  on  it,  but  you  nev- 
er know  when  spasmodic  zeal  will  burn  out.  It  is 
the  difference  between  a  good  solid  stove  thorough- 
ly warmed  for  a  long  winter  night  with  anthracite 
coal,  and  a  sheet-iron  stove  red  hot  with  a  hand- 
ful of  shavings.  How  soon  the  red  glare  fades  into 
darkness  when  the  shavings  are  gone !  And  how 
soon  they  are  gone  !  Give  us  the  plodding  tortoise 
every  time  rather  than  the  over-confident  frivolous 
hare. 

1 3 .  TJie  Secret  of  Sustained  Zeal  and  of  Successful 
Work. —  There  was  a  lady  teacher  in  an  obscure 
Sunday-school  who  was  marvclously  useful.  Every 
member   of  three   classes   successively  assigned   to 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  339 

her  was  hopefully  converted  through  her  instrumen- 
tality. Her  gifts  were  not  remarkable,  and  her  suc- 
cess was  not  understood.  By  and  by,  she  "was  not, 
for  God  took  her."  Then  they  found  a  little  diary 
which  explained  it  all.  In  one  place  they  found 
the  following: — 

''  Resolved^  That  I  will  pray  once  each  day  for 
each  member  of  my  class  by  name." 

Farther  on  they  found  this  : — 

'■'Resolved^  That  I  will  pray  once  each  day  for 
each  member  of  my  class  by  name,  and  agonize  in 
prayer." 

A  little  farther  on  they  found  these  words  : — 

^^  Resolved,  That  I  will  pray  once  each  day  for 
each  member  of  my  class  by  name,  and  agonize  in 
prayer,  and  expect  a  blessing." 

Was  it  not  now  very  plain  to  them  all  ? 

14.  All  for  Love. —  Love  sustained  the  good 
woman  and  inspired  her  prayers — love  for  Christ 
and  souls.  Great  is  the  power  of  love — greatest  of 
all  powers. 

The  northernmost  of  poets  is  the  Rev.  John 
Porlackson,  in  Balgysa,  Iceland.  Gifted  as  he  is — 
if  he  be  still  living — he  remained  unknown  until 
1 860,  when  he  was  seventy  years  old.  Two  German 
literati  visited  him,  and  brought  back  the  story  of 
his  wonderful  labors.  His  office  as  pastor  brought 
him  only  fifteen  dollars  a  year,  so  that  he  was 
obliged  to  support  himself  by  working  in  the  fields. 


340  Our  Children. 

In  his  miserable  hut  of  earth  he  had  a  study  (!)  eight 
feet  long,  six  feet  wide,  and  five  feet  high,  the  win- 
dow measuring  two  square  feet.  Here  he  translat- 
ed, during  the  long  nights  of  winter,  Klopstock's 
"  Messiah,"  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost,"  and  other 
German  and  English  poems,  with  much  good  taste, 
into  his  mother  tongue.  All  this  he  did  out  of  pure 
love  of  poetry,  and  without  hope  of  literary  fame. 

O  that  we  were  all  willing  to  so  work  for  Christ — 
out  of  pure  love  ! 

15.  Respojisibility  to  God.  —  Dinter,  a  Prussian 
school  counselor,  is  reported  to  have  said :  "■  I 
promised  God  that  I  would  look  upon  every  Prus- 
sian peasant  as  a  being  who  could  complain  of  me 
before  God  if  I  did  not  provide  for  him  the  best  ed- 
ucation, as  a  man  and  a  Christian,  which  it  was  pos- 
sible for  me  to  provide." 

Just  such  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  God  ought 
we — parents,  pastors,  secular  and  Sabbath-school 
teachers — to  feel  in  relation  to  the  children  who  are 
under  our  care  and  influence.  What  strength,  what 
zeal,  what  patience,  such  a  sense  of  responsibility  to 
God  would  bring  us !     We  should  work 

"  As  ever  in  the  great  Task-master's  eye." 

16.  Patience  and  Persistence. — Some  are  easily  dis- 
couraged. This  is  unfortunate.  It  mars  both  their 
peace  and  their  usefulness.  John  Wesley's  mother 
was  trying  hard  to  teach  one  of  her  children.     The 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  341 

child  was  dull  and  heedless,  and  her  efforts  seemed 
to  bejn  vain.  Her  husband,  less  patient  than  his 
matchless  wife,  wearied  out  in  only  watching  the  ex- 
periment, asked  her,  "  How  can  you  repeat  that 
thing  twenty  times  to  that  child?"  Let  us  think 
on  her  wise  answer  and  be  ashamed  to  be  impa- 
tient: **  Because  nineteen  times  are  not  enough." 
Besides,  had  she  stopped  at  the  nineteenth  effort 
she  would  have  lost  the  labor  and  time  already 
expended. 

17.  A  Lesson  for  Pastors. — The  following  very  re- 
markable statement  has  been  authoritatively  made 
about  the  elder  Dr.  Tyng's  Church  in  the  city  of 
New  York : — 

''  More  than  fifty  ministers  have  gone  out  from 
Dr.  Tyng's  Sunday-school,  and  among  them  are 
some  of  the  most  eminent  ministers  in  the  land." 

Now,  what  is  the  explanation  ?  Is  it  in  the  pas- 
tor, or  the  superintendent,  or  the  Church  ?  If  it  be 
said  it  is  in  the  Church,  or  in  the  officers  of  the  Sun- 
day-school, the  question  comes  up.  How  did  Dr. 
Tyng  develop  such  a  Church,  and  call  around  him 
and  train  such  colaborers?  'He  has  been  asked  for 
an  explanation  of  his  extraordinary  success.  His 
explanation  is  simple,  and,  as  it  seems  to  us,  satis- 
factory; it  explains  the  mystery  and  shows  how 
we  may  all  succeed  :  "  Personal  attention  to  my  Sab- 
bath-school.'' 

It  is  not  genius,  nor  any  peculiarities  of  method  ; 


543  Our  Children. 

much  less  is  it  any  sort  of  clap-trap  manipulations. 
It  is  only  "  personal  attention  to  my  Sabbath- 
school."  How  much  that  tells !  He  understood 
the  Sunday-school,  its  place  and  its  value.  It  is  on 
his  heart.  He  plans  for  it,  prays  and  works  for  it. 
Nay  more,  he  is  part  of  it,  its  very  life  zrA  soul,  as 
every  pastor  ought  to  be. 

1 8.  Going  through  a  Snozv-storm. — Some  teachers 
feel  very  keenly  Sunday  cold,  or  snow,  or  rain,  or 
heat.  It  seems  to  hurt  more  than  any  other  sort. 
Dr.  Tyng  is  not  one  of  these,  as  it  seems.  One  Sun- 
day there  was  a  terrific  snow-storm,  and  nobody 
was  seen  on  the  streets.  What  did  Dr.  Tyng  do  ? 
Went  to  his  church.  Whom  did  he  meet?  One 
poor  girl,  sixteen  years  old.  What  of  her?  Dr. 
Tyng,  following  the  example  of  Jesus  preaching  to 
a  solitary  woman  of  the  Samaritans  at  Jacob's  well, 
talked  the  gospel  to  her.  What  was  the  result? 
She  was  converted,  worked  for  others,  was  instru- 
mental in  the  conversion  of  twenty-five  of  the  young 
people  of  the  Church — among  them  one  of  the  pas- 
tor's sons. 

Of  Archbishop  Leighton,  it  was  said  that  '*  the 
Lord's  day  was  his  delight."  One  rainy  Sabbath, 
when  he  was  unwell,  he  persisted  in  attending 
church,  and  said,  in  excuse  foi  his  apparent  rash- 
ness :  ''  Were  the  weather  fair  I  would  stay  at  home ; 
but  since  it  is  foul  I  must  go,  lest  I  be  thought  to 
countenance,  by  my  example,  the  irreligious  prac- 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  343 

ticc  of  letting  trivial  hinderances  keep  us  back  from 
public  worship." 

19.  Saving  the  Lost  Lambs. — These  stories  are 
very  much,  in  spirit,  like  what  we  are  told  of  Dr. 
Chalmers.  When  he  occupied  the  chair  of  Philos- 
ophy in  the  College  of  St.  Andrews,  he  used  to 
gather  in  his  house  each  Sabbath  evening  the  poor- 
est and  most  ignorant  of  the  vagrant  children  of  the 
neighborhood  ;  and  the  biography  relates  that  for 
that  audience  he  prepared  himself,  pen  in  hand,  as 
carefully  as  for  his  class  in  the  university.  So  in 
wintry  weather,  though  in  the  face  of  falling  snow, 
he  was  often  seen  walking  five  miles  to  fill  an 
appointment  for  worship  with  a  little  rustic  congre- 
gation at  Kilmany.  And  there,  to  the  illiterate  cot- 
tagers, he  preached  his  best  sermons. 

20.  Helping  People  out  of  their  Miseries. — Some 
persons  shrink  from  contact  with  the  very  poor  and 
the  very  wicked.  If  we  learn  from  Jesus  how  to 
work  for  the  good  of  men,  we  will  find  that  we  are 
under  very  great  obligations  to  those  who  need  us 
most.  Great  in  God's  sight  is  the  honor  of  such 
work,  and  great  in  God's  sight  will  be  its  reward. 
Chalmers  left  a  daughter  like-minded  with  her  good 
and  great  father.  A  reliable  writer  says :  ''  In  one 
of  the  alleys  running  off  from  Fountain  Bridge, 
Edinburgh,  a  street  crowded  with  drunkenness  and 
pollution,  is  the  low-roofed  building  in  which  this 
good  woman  is  spending  her  life  to  help  men  and 


SA4  Our  Children. 

women  out  of  their  miseries.  Her  chief  work  is 
with  drunkards,  their  wives  and  daughters.  ...  In 
the  winter,  when  the  nights  are  cold,  you  may  see 
Helen  Chalmers,  with  a  lantern,  going  through  the 
lanes  of  the  city,  hunting  up  the  depraved,  and 
bringing  them  out  to  her  reform  meetings.  Insult 
ner,  do  they?  Never.  They  would  as  soon  think 
of  pelting  the  angel  of  God." 

21.  ''A  Bcatitif^d  Field,  Sir'' — Sometimes  there 
is  trouble  in  getting  the  right  kind  of  teachers  for 
our  mission-schools  in  the  cities.  It  is  a  great  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  ''any  body"  will  do  for  such 
work.  The  trouble  is,  hardly  any  body  will  do. 
The  greater  the  ignorance,  poverty,  wickedness,  and 
degradation,  the  higher  and  finer  the  qualities  of 
head  and  heart  that  are  needed  to  elevate  and  save 
them.  A  passage  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie 
illustrates  our  thought,  and  brings  out  quite  radiant- 
ly the  Christ-spirit  that  was  in  the  man.  They  had 
been  trying  a  long  time  to  get  him  to  come  from  his 
sweet  little  parish  at  Arbirlot  to  a  great  church  in 
Edinburgh.  After  much  persuasion  he  agreed  to 
go  to  Edinburgh,  on  a  condition — that  some  will 
think  strange,  that  some  will  not  understand  at  all — 
on  the  express  condition  that  he  should,  as  soon  as 
possible,  be  released  from  the  "  Old  Gray  Friars," 
and  have  a  parish  set  up  for  him  among  the  very 
poorest  of  the  Scottish  metropolis. 

Let   us    take   a   glimpse    at    that    field    in   which 


Hints  on  Siuiday-ScJiool  Work.  345 

Guthrie — ''  excavating  the  heathen,"  as  one  ex- 
pressed it — took  such  dehght.  We  quote  from  the 
"Autobiography  and  Memoirs  of  Guthrie:" — 

"  The  Cowgate  of  Edinburgh,  part  of  which  was 
included  in  the  parish  of  Old  Gray  Friars,  lies  along 
a  shallow  ravine,  and  its  site  often  brought  to  Dr. 
Guthrie's  mind  the  valley  of  the  prophet's  vision. 
The  hand  of  the  Lord  had  set  him  down,  like  Eze- 
kiel,  in  the  midst  of  the  dry  bones,  and  *  caused  him 
to  pass  by  them  round  about,'  and  the  old  question 
rang  in  his  ears,  'Can  these  dry  bones  live?'  The 
Edinburgh  valley,  where  he  labored,  is  spanned  at 
one  point  by  George  Fourth's  Bridge.  Looking  here 
through  the  open  work  of  the  railings,  the  stranger 
sees  with  surprise  not  flowing  water,  but  a  living 
stream  of  humanity  in  motion  beneath  his  feet. 

"  It  was  there,"  writes  Dr.  Guthrie,  "■  where  one 
looks  down  on  the  street  below,  and  on  the  foul, 
crowded  streets  that  stretch,  like  ribs,  down  into  the 
Cowgate,  I  stood  on  a  gloomy  day  in  the  fall  of  the 
year  '37.  The  streets  were  a  puddle ;  the  heavy 
air,  loaded  with  smoke,  was  thick  and  murky ;  right 
below  lay  the  narrow  street  of  dingy  tenements, 
whose  toppling  chimneys  and  patched  and  battered 
roofs  were  fit  emblems  of  the  fortunes  of  most  of 
their  tenants.  Of  these,  some  were  lying  over  the 
sills  of  windows  innocent  of  glass ;  others,  coarse- 
looking  women,  with  squahd  children  in  their  arms 
or  at  their  feet,  stood  in  groups  at  the  close-mouths: 


34^  Our   Children. 

[the  points  where  the  alleys  or  closes  enter  the 
streets.]  Here,  with  empty  laughter,  chaffing  any 
passing  acquaintance ;  there  screarning  each  other 
down  in  drunken  brawl,  or  standing  sullen  and 
silent,  with  hunger  and  ill-usage  in  their  saddened 
looks.  A  brewer's  cart,  threatening  to  crush  be- 
neath its  ponderous  wheels  the  ragged  urchins  who 
had  no  other  play-ground,  rumbled  over  the  cause- 
way, drowning  the  quavering  voice  of  one  whose 
drooping  head  and  scanty  dress  were  ill  in  harmony 
with  songs,  but  not  drowning  the  shrill  pipe  of  an 
Irish  girl,  who  thumped  the  back  of  an  unlucky 
donkey,  and  cried  her  herrings  at  *  three  a  penny.' 
So  looked  the  parish  I  had  come  to  cultivate ;  and 
while  contrasting  the  scene  below  with  the  pleasant 
recollections  of  the  parish  I  had  just  left — Its  sing- 
ing larks,  daisied  pastures,  decent  peasants,  and  the 
grand  blue  sea  rolling  its  lines  of  snowy  breakers  on 
the  shore — my  rather  sad  and  somber  meditations 
were  somewhat  suddenly  checked.  A  hand  was  laid 
on  my  shoulder.  I  turned  round  to  find  Dr.  Chal- 
mers at  my  elbow. 

"  This  great  and  good  man  knew  that  I  had  ac- 
cepted an  Edinburgh  charge,  mainly  for  the  purpose 
of  trying  what  the  parochial  or  territorial  system, 
fairly  wrought,  could  do  toward  Christianizing  the 
heathendom  beneath  our  feet,  and  restoring  the 
denizens  of  the  Cowgate  and  its  closes  to  sober, 
decent,    and    church-going   habits.     Contemplating 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  347 

the  field  for  a  little  in  silence,  all  at  once,  with  his 
broad  Luther-like  face  glowing  with  enthusiasm,  he 
raised  his  arm  to  exclaim,  '  A  beautiful  field,  sir ;  a 
very  beautiful  field  of  operation  ! '  " 

21.  How  the  Water  Conies  Back. — Such  work  for 
God  no  man  can  do  without  receiving  in  his  own 
heart  a  rich  reward.  It  is  not  merely  in  the  satis- 
faction he  has  in  trying  to  do  good,  but  also  in  the 
personal  growth  in  grace  which  such  efforts  to  bless 
others  foster  and  develop.  It  is  a  Bible  principle 
that  he  that  watereth  shall  himself  be  also  watered ; 
and  our  Saviour  said,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive."  Guthrie  found  it  so ;  on  him  and 
his  the  light  shined  ''  brighter  and  brighter  unto  the 
perfect  day."  The  Arabs  have  a  pretty  proverb  that 
illustrates  this  idea.  They  say,  "  The  water  you  pour 
on  the  roots  of  the  cocoa-nut  comes  back  to  you, 
sweetened  and  enriched,  in  the  milk  from  the  top." 

22.  Use  your  Experience. — What  is  the  use  of 
knowledge,  of  experience,  unless  we  do  some  good 
with  it  ?  The  best  use  of  knowledge  is  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  ignorant ;  the  best  use  of  religion  is 
the  recovery  of  the  wicked.  Mr.  Spurgeon  has  a 
good  word  of  advice  on  this  subject : — 

"  When  an  experienced  Christian  merely  uses  his 
experience  for  his  own  comfort,  or  as  a  standard  by 
which  to  judge  his  fellow-Christians,  or  makes  use 
of  it  for  self-exaltation,  as  if  he  were  infinitely  supe- 
rior to  the  most  zealous  young  men,  such  a  man 


348  OUii  Children. 

mars  his  talent,  does  mischief  with  it,  and  makes 
himself  heavily  responsible.  I  beseech  you  who 
have  long  walked  in  the  way  of  godliness  to  use 
your  experience  continually  in  your  visitations  of 
the  sick,  in  your  conversations  with  the  poor,  in 
your  meeting  with  young  beginners,  in  your  dealing 
with  backsliders.  Let  your  paths  drop  fatness ;  let 
the  anointing  oil  God  has  given  you  fall  upon  those 
who  are  round  about  you." 

23.  The  Power  of  Prayer. — Those  who  work  for 
God  in  the  midst  of  a  wicked  world  must  themselves 
be  kept  pure.  Purity  is  as  essential  to  their  useful- 
ness as  to  their  personal  salvation.  The  eloquent 
James  Hamilton  has  a  very  beautiful  passage  on 
this  point : — 

"  Among  the  forms  of  insect  life,  there  is  a  little 
creature  known  to  naturalists  which  can  gather 
around  itself  a  sufficiency  of  atmospheric  air,  and 
so  clothed  upon,  it  descends  into  the  bottom  of  the 
pool,  and  you  may  see  the  little  diver  moving  about 
dry,  and  at  his  ease,  protected  by  his  crystal  vesture, 
though  the  water  all  around  and  about  him  be  stag- 
nant and  bitter.  Prayer  is  such  a  protection :  a 
transparent  vesture,  the  world  sees  it  not — a  real 
defense,  it  keeps  out  the  world.  By  means  of  it, 
the  believer  can  gather  so  much  of  heavenly  atmos- 
phere  around  him,  and  with  it  descend  into  the 
putrid  depths  of  this  contaminating  world,  that  for 
a  season  no  evil  will  touch  him,  and  he  knows  when 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  349 

to  ascend  for  a  new  supply.     Communion  with  God 
kept  Daniel  pure  in  Babylon." 

24.  The  Grace  of  Kindness. — Frederick  Robertson 
tells  an  incident  in  one  of  his  letters  that  shows 
how  we  may  do  good  every  day,  and  perhaps  every 
waking  hour,  if  we  only  have  a  heart  for  it.  He 
had  been  writing  to  a  friend  when  a  visitor  was  an- 
nounced. After  the  visitor's  departure  he  contin- 
ued the  letter  by  describing  the  interview.  He  says : 
**  I  have  been  interrupted  by  the  visit  of  a  lady  of 
my  congregation  who  came  to  take  leave.  She  told 
me  the  delight,  the  tears  of  gratitude,  which  she 
had  witnessed  in  a  poor  girl  to  whom,  in  passing,  I 
gave  a  kind  look  in  going  out  of  church  on  Sunday. 
What  a  lesson  I  How  cheaply  happiness  can  be 
given !  What  opportunities  we  miss  of  doing  an 
angel's  work  !  I  remember  doing  it,  full  of  sad  feel- 
ings, passing  on,  and  thinking  no  more  about  it  and 
it  gave  one  hour's  sunshine  to  a  human  life,  and  light- 
ened the  load  of.  human  life  to  a  heart  for  a  time." 

25.  Life  Transfigured. — We  all  need  the  inspira- 
tion of  broad  views  and  noble  thoughts  to  save  us 
from  despondency,  worldliness,  and  selfishness.  De- 
votion to  duty  redeems  us  from  sordidness  as  noth- 
ing else  can.  Dr.  Chapin  has  some  fine  thoughts 
on  this  subject.     He  says: — ■ 

"  When  a  man  finds  at  last  that  there  is  some- 
thing beyond  this  life  to  live  for,  the  moment  that 
conception  gets  into   his  mind    life  is   transfigured 


350  Our  Children. 

and  glorified  into  the  nobler  spheres  of  action.  It 
becomes  always  glorious  and  fresh.  Some  men  will 
tell  you  that  life  is  tasteless,  wearisome,  and  exhaust- 
ing ;  in  every  case  they  are  men  who  have  tried  to 
live  in  a  narrow  and  selfish  manner.  Life  is  trans- 
figured to  every  true,  loving,  brave,  and  diligent 
soul.  Each  man,  faithful  in  his  sphere,  transfigures 
it,  and  makes  grand  the  humblest  position.  We  may 
say  that  the  act  of  transfiguration  takes  place  when 
a  man  realizes  his  own  soul  and  its  worth  and  work." 

26.  The  Ennobling  Power  of  Duty  Done. — Harlan 
Page's  motto  was  this :  ''  I  will  try  to  do  some  good 
to  every  one  I  meet."  This  is  the  true  spirit  for  all 
who  labor  in  Christ's  vineyard.  This  spirit  im- 
proves all  opportunities  —  great  and  small.  It  is 
faithful  for  Christ's  sake.  How  it  lifts  a  man  up ! 
How  it  educates — leads  out  and  up  into  its  noblest 
and  divinest  development — the  spirit !  We  may  be 
sure  that — wherever  else  there  may  be  darkness,  and 
weakness,  and  death — there  is  true  light,  and  power, 
and  life  in  the  soul  that  does  its  duty. 

Professor  Wilson — Christopher  North — in  ''Dies 
Boreales!'  thus  writes  of  duty:  ''The  faculty  of 
beauty  lives,  and  in  finite  beings,  which  we  are,  life 
changes  incessantly.  The  faculty  of  moral  percep- 
tion lives,  and  thereby  it,  too,  changes  for  better 
and  for  worse.  This  is  the  divine  law — at  once  en- 
couraging and  fearful — that  obedience  brightens  the 
moral  eyesight,  sin  darkens.     Let  all  men  know  this, 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  351 

and  keep  it  in  mind  always,  that  a  single  narrowest, 
simplest  duty,  steadily  practiced  day  after  day,  does 
more  to  support,  and  may  do  more  to  enlighten,  the 
soul  than  a  course  of  moral  philosophy  taught  by  a 
tongue  which  a  soul  compounded  of  Bacon,  Spenser, 
Shakspeare,  Homer,  Demosthenes,  and  Burke,  to 
say  nothing  of  Socrates  and  Plato,  could  inspire." 

27.  Filling  our  Sphere. — "  They  tell  in  Europe," 
says  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor,  ''  of  a  poor  man  who  was 
confined  for  many  years  in  a  cold,  dark  dungeon. 
There  was  but  one  aperture  in  the  wall,  and  through 
that  the  sunbeams  came  for  but  a  few  minutes 
daily,  making  a  bright  spot  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  cell.  Often  and  often  the  lonely  man  looked 
upon  that  little  patch  of  sunshine,  and  at  length  a 
purpose  to  improve  it  grew  within  his  soul.  Grop- 
ing on  the  floor  of  his  cell,  he  found  a  nail  and  a 
stone,  and  with  these  rude  implements  he  set  to 
work  on  the  white  portion  of  the  wall  for  the  few 
minutes  of  every  day  during  which  it  was  illumi- 
nated, until  at  length  he  succeeded  in  bringing  out 
upon  it  a  rude  sculpture  of  Christ  upon  the  cross. 
Let  us  imitate  that  prisoner.  Circumscribed  may 
be  our  sphere ;  dark,  indeed,  may  be  our  daily  lot ; 
yet,  if  we  love  the  Lord,  and  pray  to  him,  and  look 
for  his  direction,  we  shall  discover  some  tiny  chink 
through  w^hich  the  sunshine  of  his  guiding  Provi- 
dence shall  come.  On  the  spot  where  its  directing 
light  shall  fall,  let  us,  with  such  means  as  we  can 


352  Our  Children. 

command,  hew  out,  not  in  cold  stone,  but  in  living 
love,  the  Hkeness  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  So  shall 
we  find  our  special  sphere,  and  fill  it  to  the  commen- 
dation of  the  Master." 

28.  Our  Relation  to  each  other. — "  For  the  body  ia 
not  one  member,  but  many.  If  the  foot  shall  say, 
Because  I  am  not  the  hand,  I  am  not  of  the  body ; 
is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ?  And  if  the  ear  shall 
say,  Because  I  am  not  the  eye,  I  am  not  of  the 
body  ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ?  If  the  whole 
body  were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hearing?  If  the 
whole  were  hearing,  where  were  the  smelling?  But 
now  hath  God  set  the  members  every  one  of  them 
in  the  body,  as  it  hath  pleased  him.  And  if  they 
were  all  one  member,  where  were  the  body?  But 
now  are  they  many  members,  yet  but  one  body. 
And  the  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have  no 
need  of  thee :  nor  again  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have 
no  need  of  you.  Nay,  much  more  those  members 
of  the  body,  which  seem  to  be  more  feeble,  are  nec- 
essary :  and  those  members  of  the  body,  which  we 
think  to  be  less  honorable,  upon  these  we  bestow 
more  abundant  honor  ;  and  our  uncomely  parts  have 
more  abundant  comeliness.  For  our  comely  parts 
have  no  need;  but  God  hath  tempered  the  body 
together,  having  given  more  abundant  honor  to  that 
part  which  lacked :  that  there  should  be  no  schism 
in  the  body ;  but  that  the  members  should  have  the 
same  care  one  for  another.     And  whether  one  mem- 


Hints  on  Sunday-School  Work.  353 

!)er  suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  or  one 
member  be  honored,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it. 
Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and  members  in 
particular.  And  God  hath  set  some  in  the  Church, 
first  apostles,  secondarily  prophets,  thirdly  teachers, 
after  that  miracles,  then  gifts  of  healing,  helps,  gov- 
ernment, diversities  of  tongues."   i  Cor.  xii,  14-28. 

29.  The  Spirit  of  true  Christian  Laborers.  — 
'*  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and 
of  angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as 
sounding  brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal.  And  though 
I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand  all  mys- 
teries, and  all  knowledge ;  and  though  I  have  all 
faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have 
not  charity,  I  am  nothing.  And  though  I  bestow 
all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  though  I  give  my 
body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  charity,  it  profit- 
eth  me  nothing.  Charity  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind  ; 
charity  envieth  not ;  charity  vaunteth  not  itself,  is 
not  puffed  up,  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly, 
seeketh  not  her  own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  think- 
eth  no  evil ;  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoic- 
eth  in  the  truth  ;  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things.  Char- 
ity never  faileth  :  but  whether  there  be  prophecies, 
they  shall  fail ;  whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall 
cease  ;  whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish 
away."   i  Cor.  xiii,  1-8. 

30.  Our  Final  Reward  our   Present   Support.^ 

23 


354  Our  Childrkn. 

**  When  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and 
all  the  holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  his  glory :  and  before  him  shall  be 
gathered  all  nations :  a.jd  he  shall  separate  thcni 
one  from  another,  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep 
from  the  goats:  and  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his 
right  hand,  but  the  goats  on  the  left.  Then  shall 
the  King  say  unto  them  on  his  right  hand,  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared 
for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  :  for  I  was 
ahungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat :  I  was  thirsty,  and 
ye  gave  me  drink :  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me 
in :  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me :  I  was  sick,  and  ye 
visited  me :  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me. 
Then  shall  the  righteous  answer  him,  saying,  Lord, 
when  saw  we  thee  ahungered,  and  fed  thee?  or 
thirsty,  and  gave  thee  drink?  When  saw  we  thee  a 
stranger,  and  took  thee  in?  or  naked,  and  clothed 
thee?  Or  when  saw  we  thee  sick,  or  in  prison,  and 
came  unto  thee?  And  the  King  shall  answer  and 
say  unto  them,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  Matt,  xxv, 
31-40. 


THE   END. 


FEEIS  M@TI€SS. 


OUR    CHILDREN 

By  ATTICUS  G-.  HAYaOOD,  D.D., 

President  of  Emory  College, 

1i2mQ.    &&4  pag-es,    PrioQ^  $i  &Q>v   Postage  paM. 

NEW  YORK:  IVelson  A  Phillips. 
MA.CO.\,  GA. :  J.  VV.  Burke  &  Co. 
(9T.  LOUIS :  S.  W.  B.  «&  P.  CO. 


The  author,  now  President  of  Emory  College,  Oxford,  Ga.,  wa« 
from  1870  to  1876  Sunday-School  Secretary  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South.  The  first  edition  was  exhausted  in  seven  weeks 
after  publication.  This  book  has  been  most  emphatically  commended. 
The  venerable  Rev.  Lovick  Pierce,  D.D.,  says  in  his  Introduction: — 

From  a  well-stored  mind  and  an  anxious  heart  the  author  offers  in 
this  work  his  observations  and  experience  upon  the  best  interests  of 
our  children  for  time  and  eternity,  upon  the  obhgations  and  duties  of 
parents,  and  upon  the  opportunities  and  work  of  Sunday-school  teach- 
ers. The  principles,  drawn  as  they  are  from  the  word  of  God,  that  are 
set  forth  in  this  volume,  are,  like  the  mariner's  chart  and  compass,  all 
important  to  safe  navigation  along  the  perilous  coast  of  time. 


.  The  book  is  divided  into  two  nearly  equal  parts,  the  first  treating  of 
children  in  the  family,  and  the  second  of  children  in  the  Sunday-schooL 
The  whole  is  so  well  done,  and  the  work  so  eminently  practical,  thai 
we  lieartily  wish  a  copy  of  it  might  find  its  way  into  the  hand  of  every 
parent  and  guardian,  and  of  every  Sunday-school  officer  and  teacher. 
There  are  single  chapters  worth  more  than  the  price  of  the  whole  book, 
and  some  of  them  we  have  marked  for  transfer  to  our  columns.  In  or- 
der to  secure  a  more  extensive  circulation  than  it  would  otherwise 
reach,  we  hope  our  friends  will  see  that  a  copy  shall  be  placed  in  the 
library  of  every  Sunday-school  in  the  land. — Christian  Advocate. 


It  is  happily  introduced  by  the  venerable  and  devoted  Dr.  L.  Pierce. 
The  first  part  of  the  volume  treats  of  the  relation  of  the  family  to  the 
early  religious  culture  of  the  child ;  and  the  second  part,  of  the  Sunday- 
school.  Dr.  Haygood  is  a  very  pleasant  wiiter,  attractive  in  style,  and 
full  of  pertinent  illustrations.  His  theme  is  as  important  as  it  is  famil- 
iar.   He  has  been  very  successful  in  presenting  it  in  fresh  and  imprea*- 


PBESS  NOTICES.  ' 

ivo  aspects,  and  proffers  to  the  Church  a  most  excellent,  wholesome, 
And  practical  manual.  Ministers,  Sunday-sciioul  teacliers,  and  parents 
will  find  valuable  suggestions  for  the  discharge  of  their  several  duties 
to  the  children,  and  much  inspiration  to  a  more  earnest  consecration  fo) 
(Ilia  vital  work  of  nurturing  the  lambs.— Zto^t's  Herald. 


We  commend  it  as  the  best  treatise  of  the  kind  of  which  we  have  anj 
knowledge.  It  is  written  in  racy,  vigorous,  popular  style.  The  charm 
of  the  book  consists  not  only  in  the  lively  style  of  the  author,  but  in  the 
ftflauence  of  illustrations,  anecdotes,  and  extracts,  with  which  it  abounds. 
It  would  be  a  Godsend  to  the  country  if  a  copy  of  this  book  were  put 
into  every  house  in  the  land,  and  blessed  would  be  the  result  if  every- 
body would  read  it.— T.  0.  SuiiaiEits,  D.D.,  Editor  of  Xaahvillc  Chris- 
tian Advocate.  

It  is  written  in  admirable  spirit,  in  clear  and  forcible  style,  and 
should  be  read  by  all  parents  and  teachers.  It  is  a  book  for  (.-very 
household.  It  is  sound,  practical,  and  just  such  a  book  as  is  needed  in 
all  our  homes,  North  and  South,  at  the  present  time.— J.  H.  Vincent, 
D.D.,  S.  S.  Secretary  M.  E.  Church,  North. 


The  work  before  us  is  a  concise  expression  of  that  advanced  Christian 
theory  which  has  embodied  itself  in  the  great  modern  Sunday-school 
movement.  While  the  views  expressed  are  strictly  scriptural,  and  olfer 
no  compromise  to  the  encroaching  spirit  of  worldlincss  that  too  often 
taints  the  freest  religious  thought,  yet  tliey  urge  an  advanced  culture 
for  children,  upon  a  basis  that  our  fatiiers  might  not  have  understood, 
but  whicli  is  made  necessary  by  the  advancement  of  all  departments  of 
education  and  science.  In  the  style  of  the  book  we  find  nmch  to  com- 
mend. It  is  clear  and  strong.  Its  cliief  attraction  to  us  is  its  pure 
An^lo-Saxou  force  and  sweetness. — Atlanta  Daily  Times. 


We  welcome  this  timely  and  admirably- written  work.  Its  paper, 
binding,  and  typography  are  all  in  keeping  with  the  clioice  nature  ol 
its  contents.  It  is  reiVeshing  to  look  at  the  clear,  clean,  heavy-leaded 
type;  btill  more  refresliing  to  read  the  tine,  lofty,  stirring  thought.s 
which  they  embody.  On  tlie  early  and  thorough  religious  culture  ol 
our  children  ;  the  responsibility  of  parents  in  relation  to  this  most  im- 
portant work,  and  the  necessity  of  a  more  Ciireful  and  conscientious 
regard  for  their  obligations  in  this  respect;  the  sidiere  and  funeticns  of 
the  Sabbath-school,  ami  the  best  method  of  making  it  available  as  an 
auxiliary  to  fireside  instruction  — on  all  these  topics,  we  are  acquainted 
with  no  work  that  so  cnm]>letely  meets  the  demands  of  the  Church  anu 
the  age  as  this  book  of  Dr.  i  lay  good's.  It  ouglit  to  be  in  the  household 
of  every  pastor,  parent,  and  Sabbath -school  teacher  in  the  laiid.  — /At!;. 
moro  Kp)^c*>pal  MetfuMhst 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

The  author,  Dr.  Haygood,  id  a  Christian  father,  with  vivid  and  well 
matured  conceptions  of  the  delicate  and  difficult  duties,  and  wide  reach- 
ing responsibilities,  which  attach  to  parenthood;  and  he  has  written 
oui  of  his  own  heart  and  experience.  As  an  itinerant  Methodist 
jireacher,  his  opportunities  for  marking  the  excellences  and  defects  of 
liuiue  culture  in  the  average  Christian  family  have  been  extensive  ;  and 
the  fruit  of  his  thouglitful  and  discriminating  observations  is  garnered 
in  this  interesting  and  instructive  book.  Known  as  u  "  Sunday-school 
man"  throughout  his  whole  minLstry,  and  for  five  or  six  years  the 
official  head  of  this  department  of  Church  work  among  us,  he  is 
peculiarly  well  fitted  to  appreciate  the  true  position  of  the  Sunday-scliool 
in  the  instruction  and  training  of  the  children,  and  to  indicate  errors, 
both  of  theory  and  practice,  that  have  been  injurious,  or  that  are  likely 
to  prove  hurtful.— F.  M.  Kennedy,  D.D.,  Editor  of  S.  C.  Advocate. 


There  is  remarkable  freshness,  directness,  point  to  €very  sentence. 
There  is  nothing  stilted,  nothing  dry,  and  yet  nothing  undignified. 
There  are  passages  of  poetic  beauty.  There  is  stinging  satire  in  the 
book.  There  is  bold  arraignment.  There  is,  above  all,  genuine  unction. 
I  do  liope  every  father  and  mother  will  get  tlie  book,  and  every  Sunday- 
Kchool  teacher  and  superintendent ;  and  1  do  not  think  any  sensible 
preacher  will  consent  to  be  without  it. — Pacific  Meihodlat. 


The  author  does  not  deal  in  theological  .speculations  about  childhood- 
he  is  not  betrayed  into  the  advocacy  of  any  fine-spun  theory,  as  have 
been  so  many  modern  writers  on  this  theme.  Rather,  he  treats  his  sub- 
ject in  the  light  of  facts  of  observation  and  experience,  and  in  the  light 
of  God's  word,  and  so  reaches  practical  conclusions  as  to  duties  and 
privileges,  as  they  relate  to  our  children  and  to  ourselves.  It  is,  indeed, 
a  book  that  will  at  once  instruct  and  arouse— a  book  for  all  parents  to 
read,  and  likewise  all  Sunday-school  workers. —  Western.  Methodist. 


We  have  read  it  with  interest  and  profit,  and  can  cordially  commend 
it  to  all  our  readers.  It  is  a  book  for  the  times.  No  one  who  has 
charge  of  children  in  the  family  or  the  Sunday-school  can  fail  to  bu 
profited  by  this  book. — Riclimond  CJiristiau  Advocate. 


It  is  not  a  sectarian  book;  it  is  not  a  book  specially  for  the  lejirned 
or  the  rich,  though  God  knows  how  greatly  many  of  these  need  such  a 
book;  nor  is  it  a  book  specially  for  tlie  unlearned  and  the  poor;  it  is  a 
book  for  alh  It  is  suited  to  every  age,  to  all  climes,  to  all  people,— 
St.  Louis  Christiiui  Advocate.         

We  doubt  vei-y  much  whether  any  work  so  full  of  practical  wisdom 
and  sound  evangelical  truth  has  ever  appeared  from  the  pen  of  a  South 
em  Methodist  author.  If  it  were  placed  in  every  family  in  the  land, 
and  carefully  read,  it  would  create  a  perceptible  moral  upliflin;:.— 
llolatoH  Methodist. 


PBESS  NOTICES. 

Wo  most  sincerely  commend  to  every  body  this  valuable  addition  tr» 
i.>ur  Churcli  literatm*e. — W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  D.D.,  S.  S.  Secretary 
AI.  E.  Churclu  South. 


It  is  a  book  which  every  parent  and  Sunday-school  teacher  might 
read  to  advantage,  and  the  theme  is  one  which  none  of  them  can  afford 
to  undervalue  or  ignore. — Sunday -School  Tiniea. 


The  author  gives  a  very  broad  treatment  to  the  question  of  giving  re- 
ligious culture  to  children.  Dr.  Haygood's  book  is  an  admirable  one. 
It  is  both  stimulating  and  instructive.— iV'tz^ionaZ  S.  S.  Teacher. 


The  volume  is  one  that  will  be  helpful  to  all  Christian  parents  and 
teachers. — N.   Y.  Observer. 

The  volume  is  timely,  and  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  every 

parcjit. — Texan  Pi-eshyferian. 


It  discusses,  from  scriptui'al  stand-points,  and  with  able  and  thorough 
arguments,  the  entire  fields  of  the  family,  the  home,  and  the  Sunday- 
Hchool.  It  is  a  book  of  Gospel  power.  It  guards  the  home  as  angels 
w  ith  flaming  swords  guarded  the  original  paradise.  It  is  a  genuine  friend 
to  the  father  and  the  mother.  If  this  work  could  find  its  way  into  every 
household,  and  become  a  text-book  for  young  and  old,  the  next  genera- 
tion would  stand  on  a  grandly  higher  plane  of  enjoyment,  usefiilness, 
and  honor. — Alexander  Claek,  D.D.,  Methodid  Recorder. 


.  A  most  delightful  book  for  all  persons  who  occupy  the  responsible 
[)Osition  of  traincns  of  youth.— i\^,   W.  GJiristian  Advocate. 


It  treats  the  whole  subject  of  the  religious  education  of  the  young,  at 
liome  and  in  school,  with  great  fullness,  and  with  a  union  of  practical 
•^onse  and  fervent  piety  which  will  insure  the  confidence  of  readers  and 
l.olp  them.— Dr.  Talmage,  in  Christian  at  Wo^'k. 


We  have  nothing  but  words  of  commendation  to  bestow  upon  the 
>ok.— iVeu)  Orleans  Christian  Advocate. 


SOLD     BY 


NELSON  &  PHILLIPS,  New  York. 
J.  W.  BURKE  &  CO.,  Macon,  Ga. 
L    D.  DAMERON,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
A.  H.  BEDFORD,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
T.  L.  D.  WALFORD    Richii.ond,  Va. 
D.  H.  CARROLL,  Baltimore,  Md. 


HITCHCOCK  &  WALDEN,  Cincinnati,  0. 
"  Chicago,  III. 

"  "  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

JAMES  ROBISON,  Agt.,  Pittsburgh.  Pa. 
R.  J.  HARP,  New  Orleans,  La. 
The  AUTHOR,  Oxford,  Georgia. 


ipW°  It  may  lit*  ordered  tlirougli  any  Bookseller. 


Date  Due                       1 

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